Photo: Eric Polk · CC BY 3.0Guadalupe has some of the highest unemployment in the country: 14.4%
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 2.4 in Santa Maria. The two grades for Guadalupe are D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, next to 17% for California as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Guadalupe stands out on work
Guadalupe and Santa Maria trade workers both ways
Santa Maria is the top workplace for Guadalupe residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Guadalupe come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Guadalupe workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 17% across California. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Guadalupe makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Guadalupe are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Guadalupe residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Guadalupe earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Guadalupe is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #763 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Guadalupe’s grade up (ahead of 50% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Guadalupe could be anywhere from D to C−.
32% of working residents work in Santa Maria
Where Guadalupe clocks in
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
About 27 minutes each way for Guadalupe’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Guadalupe workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,799 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
A place that makes things: 38% of Guadalupe’s jobs are in goods
1,005 jobs are based in Guadalupe.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Guadalupe, 2013 → 2023: 1,069 → 1,005. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Guadalupe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Guadalupe quiets down on a workday
On a workday 2,942 residents head out to work, 209 work right here, and 796 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,700 people are in Guadalupe on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.32 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Miles to work from Guadalupe
About 29% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Guadalupe is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Guadalupe is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #363 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,919 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 33% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.5% of Guadalupe households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Guadalupe’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900, and where Guadalupe sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,615 | Merrydale LA | 9,490 | $42K | 30.0% | 19.5% | <1% | D |
| 2,616 | Chanute KS | 8,584 | $51K | 17.3% | 5.2% | 52% | D |
| 2,617 | Guadalupe CA | 8,846 | $67K | 27.7% | 14.4% | 7% | D |
| 2,618 | Brooksville FL | 10,145 | $55K | 19.7% | 7.3% | 15% | D |
| 2,619 | Florence OR | 9,468 | $53K | 10.3% | 6.6% | 42% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Guadalupe, the top three, the last and three more from California.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Guadalupe: questions
What is the median household income in Guadalupe?
$66,930 (±$10,686) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Guadalupe?
27.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Guadalupe?
27 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Guadalupe work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Maria (32%, 8 mi), San Luis Obispo (6%, 22 mi), Los Angeles (3%, 139 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Guadalupe walkable?
Guadalupe is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Guadalupe without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 33% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Guadalupe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Guadalupe
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.