Households in Los Molinos earn less than those in 98% of U.S. towns
Los Molinos grades D− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Poverty touches 34.4% of residents; California has 12.0%. For 7% of workers, the job is at home; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Los Molinos apart on work
Los Molinos’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Los Molinos is Chico, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (70) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Los Molinos
60% of Los Molinos residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 40% of the jobs based in Los Molinos pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. 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; with 672 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Los Molinos earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Los Molinos is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Los Molinos’ grade.
Unemployment (13.1%) is left out: Los Molinos’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Los Molinos could be anywhere from D− to D.
The distance from Los Molinos to work
About 34% 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.
What Los Molinos’ employers do
469 jobs are based in Los Molinos.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Los Molinos, 2013 → 2023: 330 → 469. 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 Los Molinos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Los Molinos
On a workday 629 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 426 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Los Molinos on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.70 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.
10% of working residents work in Chico
Where Los Molinos clocks in
10% of workers
5% 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.
Time on the road from Los Molinos: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Los Molinos workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 494 commuters (the 7% 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.
Most trips from Los Molinos start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Los Molinos is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 529 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 71% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 71% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 58% 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). 10.1% of Los Molinos households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Los Molinos’ commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, and where Los Molinos sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Baywood Park CA | 1,580 | $217K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Irwindale CA | 1,439 | $114K | 4.3% | 6.5% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,099 | Pleasant Plains Township MI | 1,737 | $33K | 30.0% | 7.5% | 9% | D− |
| 6,100 | Tsaile AZ | 1,696 | $49K | 46.2% | 6.2% | 8% | D− |
| 6,101 | Los Molinos CA | 1,604 | $35K | 34.4% | 13.1% | 6% | D− |
| 6,102 | Fern Acres HI | 1,480 | $40K | 27.4% | 6.8% | 1% | D− |
| 6,103 | Eudora AR | 1,511 | $29K | 28.1% | 8.5% | 37% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Los Molinos, 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 Los Molinos: questions
What is the median household income in Los Molinos?
$35,000 (±$27,494) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Los Molinos?
34.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Los Molinos?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Los Molinos work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chico (10%, 24 mi), Red Bluff (9%, 13 mi), Redding (5%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Los Molinos walkable?
Los Molinos is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 11.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Los Molinos without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 71% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Los Molinos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Los Molinos
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.