Work, pay and getting to work in Middletown
Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers (California 17%). Getting around Middletown on foot earns B−. About one in seven stay in Middletown for work; outside it, Santa Rosa is the main destination (11%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Middletown
Each way, about 30 minutes from Middletown
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Middletown workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 642 commuters (the 1% 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 works in Middletown, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 326 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 505 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Middletown on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 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.
Commuting out of Middletown: the destinations
Where Middletown clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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 the 550 jobs in Middletown are
550 jobs are based in Middletown.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Middletown, 2013 → 2023: 469 → 550. 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 Middletown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Middletown works
About 22% 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.
In Middletown, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Middletown is more walkable than 52% 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 647 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 95% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 95% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 2.9% of Middletown households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Middletown’s commuters take a bus or train.
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 Middletown: questions
What is the poverty rate in Middletown?
8.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Middletown?
30 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Middletown work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Rosa (11%, 22 mi), Calistoga (8%, 12 mi), Hidden Valley Lake (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Middletown walkable?
Middletown is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 13.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Middletown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 95% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Middletown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Middletown
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.