Photo: Dolly442 · CC BY-SA 4.0Laguna Woods has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 4.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 17.5 in Los Angeles. Laguna Woods has 2,868 jobs for 5,343 working residents. For jobs and income Laguna Woods is better than 38% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Laguna Woods and work: the main findings
Commutes from Laguna Woods are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker, and quicker than any town next door (25 to 29 minutes). Time on the road ↓
Laguna Woods’ workforce skews older
42% of Laguna Woods’ working residents are 55 or older. That’s about two in five. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Laguna Woods
Job access by car holds Laguna Woods’ grade up (ahead of 95% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.3%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laguna Woods could be anywhere from C to B.
About 20 minutes each way for Laguna Woods’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laguna Woods workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,663 commuters (the 21% 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.
The kinds of work in Laguna Woods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laguna Woods, 2013 → 2023: 3,009 → 2,868. 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 Laguna Woods’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Laguna Woods by day
On a workday 5,118 residents head out to work, 225 work right here, and 2,643 people come in from elsewhere.
About 14,000 people are in Laguna Woods on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
11% of working residents work in Irvine
Where Laguna Woods clocks in
11% of workers
4% 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.
How far Laguna Woods goes to work
About 20% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Laguna Woods
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,364 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 81% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 9% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 81% 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). 10.5% of Laguna Woods households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Laguna Woods’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,999 U.S. towns of 12,000 to 23,000, Laguna Woods comes 1,477th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 121 | Coto de Caza CA | 15,190 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,475 | Lennox CA | 19,449 | $58K | 16.4% | 6.6% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,476 | Beaufort SC | 15,775 | $61K | 12.5% | 3.6% | 25% | C+ |
| 1,477 | Laguna Woods CA | 16,844 | $59K | 14.2% | 7.3% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,478 | Jensen Beach FL | 12,531 | $71K | 16.7% | 4.3% | 8% | C+ |
| 1,479 | Lithia Springs GA | 16,875 | $62K | 16.1% | 6.6% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,999 | 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 Laguna Woods, the top three, the last and three more from California.
15% of Laguna Woods works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Irvine (11%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Laguna Woods workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laguna Woods | – | C+ | A | 20 min | $59,269 |
| Aliso Viejo | under 3% | A | B+ | 25 min | $142,439 |
| Laguna Hills | 4% | A− | B+ | 27 min | $128,851 |
| Irvine | 11% | B+ | A | 25 min | $136,719 |
| Laguna Beach | under 3% | A− | A | 29 min | $143,843 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Laguna Woods’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 Laguna Woods: questions
What is the median household income in Laguna Woods?
$59,269 (±$7,082) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laguna Woods?
14.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laguna Woods?
20 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laguna Woods work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Irvine (11%, 5 mi), Los Angeles (7%, 48 mi), Laguna Hills (4%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laguna Woods walkable?
Laguna Woods is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laguna Woods without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 9% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laguna Woods, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laguna Woods
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.