Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Alanmak~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0Family incomes in Isla Vista trail those of 91% of U.S. towns
Not counting college students, poverty touches 19.4% of residents, against 11.6% across California. Isla Vista grades C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. 9% of workers work from home, where California as a whole has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Isla Vista: the figures worth knowing
Many jobs in Isla Vista pay little
44% of the jobs based in Isla Vista pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 53% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
A young workforce
43% of Isla Vista’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Isla Vista are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
45% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Isla Vista and Santa Barbara trade workers both ways
Santa Barbara is the top workplace for Isla Vista residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Isla Vista come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
Isla Vista’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On family income, poverty and job access, Isla Vista is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #714 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Isla Vista’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($58,938, U.S. $99,999).
83% of Isla Vista’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (80% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 19.4%, against 70.4% for all residents. Unemployment (17.4%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($58,938), since student households pull the household median down ($25,972).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Isla Vista could be anywhere from D to A.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Isla Vista
858 jobs are based in Isla Vista.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Isla Vista, 2013 → 2023: 724 → 858. 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 Isla Vista’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Isla Vista
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Isla Vista workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,822 commuters (the 9% 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.
How far Isla Vista’s workers travel
About 45% 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.
Commuting out of Isla Vista: the destinations
Where Isla Vista clocks in
17% of workers
12% 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.
In and out of Isla Vista on a workday
On a workday 2,864 residents head out to work, 159 work right here, and 699 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Isla Vista on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.28 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.
Isla Vista is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Isla Vista is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns, #113 of 847 in California. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 38.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 9.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,429 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 30% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 40% 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). 14.6% of Isla Vista households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Isla Vista’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Isla Vista is 1,953rd of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,951 | The Dalles OR | 15,745 | $63K | 11.0% | 7.7% | 41% | C− |
| 1,952 | Chino Valley AZ | 13,832 | $61K | 11.4% | 5.3% | 12% | C− |
| 1,953 | Isla Vista CA | 13,920 | $26K | 70.4% | 17.4% | 5% | C− |
| 1,954 | Greenfield MA | 17,691 | $56K | 15.2% | 6.3% | 26% | C− |
| 1,955 | Washington Court House OH | 14,375 | $56K | 17.7% | 5.3% | 22% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Isla Vista, the top three, the last and three more from California.
How Isla Vista compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to University of California-Santa Barbara (7%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Isla Vista workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isla Vista | – | C− | A | 16 min | $25,972 |
| University of California-Santa Barbara | 7% | B | A+ | 14 min | $69,327 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Isla Vista’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Students. 83% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Isla Vista: questions
What is the median household income in Isla Vista?
$25,972 (±$5,478) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Isla Vista?
70.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 19.4%. California: 12.0%.
How long is the commute from Isla Vista?
16 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Isla Vista work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Barbara (17%, 8 mi), Goleta (12%, 2 mi), Los Angeles (7%, 87 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Isla Vista walkable?
Isla Vista is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 39% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Isla Vista without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Isla Vista, from the people who make the trip.
More of Isla Vista
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.