Photo: Lost_Hills,_California_western_city_limit_sign_(2011).jpg: Amin Eshaiker derivative work: Amineshaker · CC BY-SA 3.0Lost Hills’ household incomes are lower than in 92% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 0% of workers (California 17%). The poverty rate is 24.2%, against 12.0% across California. For jobs and income Lost Hills is better than 2% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (C).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Lost Hills apart
Lost Hills’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Lost Hills is Bakersfield, 41 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (50) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Lost Hills is where the jobs are
Lost Hills has 742 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Lost Hills has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Lost Hills went from 399 in 2013 to 742 in 2023, +86%. 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 412 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Why Lost Hills gets the Jobs & income grade it does
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lost Hills’ grade.
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Lost Hills’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, Lost Hills could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far Lost Hills’ workers travel
About 31% 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.
Who commutes out of Lost Hills, and who commutes in
On a workday 378 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 708 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Lost Hills on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
A place that makes things: 36% of Lost Hills’ jobs are in goods
742 jobs are based in Lost Hills.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lost Hills, 2013 → 2023: 399 → 742. 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 Lost Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Lost Hills
Where Lost Hills clocks in
12% of workers
8% of workers
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.
The daily trip from Lost Hills: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lost Hills workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 692 commuters (the 0% 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.
In Lost Hills, most people drive to work
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 692 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 62% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 62% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% 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 Lost Hills households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lost Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Where Lost Hills sits among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Baywood Park CA | 1,580 | $217K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Harmony Grove CA | 2,585 | $227K | 4.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Irwindale CA | 1,439 | $114K | 4.3% | 6.5% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,678 | Ripley OH | 1,597 | $49K | 23.9% | 12.7% | 9% | D− |
| 5,679 | McCormick SC | 2,010 | $41K | 26.6% | 1.7% | 5% | D− |
| 5,680 | Lost Hills CA | 1,926 | $46K | 24.2% | 5.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,681 | Lewiston CA | 2,020 | $40K | 17.6% | 4.7% | 6% | D− |
| 5,682 | Westmorland CA | 2,015 | $29K | 48.6% | 14.2% | 9% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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 Lost Hills, 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 Lost Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Lost Hills?
$45,976 (±$7,526) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lost Hills?
24.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lost Hills?
22 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lost Hills work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bakersfield (12%, 41 mi), Wasco (8%, 18 mi), Delano (6%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lost Hills walkable?
Lost Hills is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lost Hills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 62% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lost Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lost Hills
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.