Mill Creek Zanja · Photo: Aaron Henderson · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Mentone works elsewhere
Only 3% stay in Mentone for work; outside it, San Bernardino is the main destination (16%, 12 miles). There are 1,367 jobs in Mentone for 4,072 working residents. Jobs and income earn Mentone B; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Mentone’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mentone is better than 63% of U.S. towns, #383 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Mentone’s grade up (ahead of 80% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mentone could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Mentone by day and by night
On a workday 3,939 residents head out to work, 133 work right here, and 1,234 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,800 people are in Mentone on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
The places Mentone commutes to
Where Mentone clocks in
16% of workers
14% 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.
What Mentone’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mentone, 2013 → 2023: 1,273 → 1,367. 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 Mentone’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes each way for Mentone’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mentone workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,163 commuters (the 10% 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.
Half of Mentone commutes less than 13 miles
About 18% 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.
Few in Mentone walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mentone is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns, #557 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.7% of 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 4,624 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 85% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 56% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 65% 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). 5.0% of Mentone households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Mentone’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Mentone is 1,311th among 2,764 U.S. towns of 6,700 to 12,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,309 | Fultondale AL | 9,307 | $74K | 12.5% | 3.3% | 3% | B |
| 1,310 | Lost Creek Township IN | 11,305 | $67K | 13.2% | 3.2% | 6% | B |
| 1,311 | Mentone CA | 9,514 | $75K | 12.5% | 3.1% | 3% | B |
| 1,312 | Youngtown AZ | 7,039 | $68K | 10.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| 1,313 | Seward NE | 7,892 | $73K | 9.6% | 1.7% | 32% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,764 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Mentone, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Next door is work for 17% of Mentone
The biggest share goes to Redlands (14%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Mentone’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 Mentone: questions
What is the median household income in Mentone?
$74,708 (±$12,031) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mentone?
12.5%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mentone?
27 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mentone work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Bernardino (16%, 12 mi), Redlands (14%, 3 mi), Loma Linda (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mentone walkable?
Mentone is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 11.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mentone without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 56% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mentone, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mentone
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.