Photo: Stacey Baca · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes put Lafayette near the very top of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 2.9%; California has 12.0%. Measured by household income, Lafayette is among the highest-earning towns in the country. For jobs and income Lafayette is better than 94% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Lafayette, in brief
Home offices are common in Lafayette
43% of Lafayette workers work from home, against 17% across California. Time on the road ↓
Lafayette trades workers with the towns around it
Lafayette has about as many jobs (8,814) as working residents (9,577), but they are mostly different people: 8,878 residents leave for work each day while 8,115 people come in. Only 8% of the jobs in Lafayette are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Three in four Lafayette workers earn over $40,000 a year
79% of Lafayette’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Lafayette draws workers from far and wide
The 8,814 jobs in Lafayette are filled from a wide area. Lafayette’s own residents hold 8% and the ten next-biggest home towns 37%; the other 55% come from many towns beyond those. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Lafayette’s grade explained
Household income holds Lafayette’s grade up ($228,250, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (4.3%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lafayette could be anywhere from A to A+.
The daily trip from Lafayette: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lafayette workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,747 commuters (the 43% 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.
Who commutes out of Lafayette, and who commutes in
On a workday 8,878 residents head out to work, 699 work right here, and 8,115 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.92 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Lafayette’s employers do
8,814 jobs are based in Lafayette.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lafayette, 2013 → 2023: 8,948 → 8,814. 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 Lafayette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
19% of working residents work in San Francisco
Where Lafayette clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Lafayette
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.
In Lafayette, walking beats the bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 23.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 8.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 11,809 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 17% 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 2.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 69% 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). 2.2% of Lafayette households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 18% of Lafayette’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lafayette ranks: 133rd of 1,516 U.S. towns of 18,000 to 34,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 98 | Manhattan Beach CA | 33,122 | $204K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | Saratoga CA | 30,418 | $250K | 3.3% | 4.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Dakota Ridge CO | 33,753 | $121K | 4.4% | 2.8% | 4% | A |
| 132 | Hazlet Township NJ | 20,743 | $122K | 3.7% | 3.5% | 7% | A |
| 133 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| 134 | Ballwin MO | 30,901 | $125K | 4.8% | 2.9% | 4% | A |
| 135 | Westport CT | 28,301 | $250K | 3.2% | 4.1% | 16% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,516 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Lafayette, the top three, the last and three more from California.
How Lafayette compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Walnut Creek (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lafayette workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lafayette | – | A | A | 29 min | $228,250 |
| Moraga | 2% | A− | A | 31 min | $216,193 |
| Saranap | under 2% | A | A+ | 29 min | $157,347 |
| Acalanes Ridge | under 2% | A+ | A | 27 min | $181,094 |
| Reliez Valley | under 2% | A− | A− | 29 min | $249,864 |
| Orinda | under 2% | A+ | A | 36 min | $250,000+ |
| Walnut Creek | 7% | A− | A+ | 31 min | $130,432 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lafayette’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Lafayette: questions
What is the median household income in Lafayette?
$228,250 (±$25,040) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lafayette?
2.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lafayette?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 43% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lafayette work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Francisco (19%, 18 mi), Oakland (8%, 10 mi), Walnut Creek (7%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lafayette walkable?
Lafayette is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 24% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lafayette without a car?
18% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lafayette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lafayette
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.