Photo: David Wakely · CC BY-SA 2.5Pasadena draws 88,926 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Pasadena B+; getting around on foot earns it A+. Pasadena has 100,504 jobs; 57,023 of its residents have a job. Household incomes here are higher than in 81% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Pasadena
Pasadena and Los Angeles trade workers both ways
Los Angeles is the top workplace for Pasadena residents (29%) and also where the most people who work in Pasadena come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Pasadena is where the jobs are
Pasadena has 100,504 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Pasadena
28% of Pasadena workers work from home, against 17% across California. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Pasadena’s workers comes from Los Angeles
19,172 of the people who work in Pasadena live in Los Angeles, 18 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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.
How Pasadena earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pasadena is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #337 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Pasadena’s grade up (ahead of 98% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pasadena could be anywhere from B to B+.
Who travels to work in Pasadena, and from where
Where Pasadena clocks in
3% 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.
Pasadena fills up on a workday
On a workday 45,445 residents head out to work and 11,578 work right here.
About 179,000 people are in Pasadena on a workday afternoon, 32% more 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.
About 27 minutes to work from Pasadena
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pasadena workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 52,443 commuters (the 28% 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.
Pasadena is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pasadena, 2013 → 2023: 95,035 → 100,504. 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 Pasadena’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Pasadena commutes less than 11 miles
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: Pasadena
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pasadena is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns, #23 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Pasadena near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 72,450 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 97% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 63% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 9.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 93% 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). 9.4% of Pasadena households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Pasadena’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
For jobs and income, Pasadena is 112th of 273 U.S. towns of 95,000 to 183,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Sunnyvale CA | 156,577 | $186K | 5.8% | 4.5% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | San Mateo CA | 103,337 | $154K | 8.2% | 4.6% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Midland TX | 147,615 | $90K | 12.4% | 3.5% | 52% | B+ |
| 111 | Rio Rancho NM | 114,419 | $90K | 7.4% | 4.6% | 19% | B+ |
| 112 | Pasadena CA | 135,804 | $105K | 13.3% | 5.6% | 20% | B+ |
| 113 | Aurora IL | 181,505 | $94K | 9.5% | 5.8% | 16% | B+ |
| 114 | Murfreesboro TN | 171,178 | $80K | 8.8% | 4.3% | 28% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 273 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Pasadena, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work next door: 33% of Pasadena’s workers
The biggest share goes to Los Angeles (29%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pasadena workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasadena | – | B+ | A+ | 27 min | $105,192 |
| La Cañada Flintridge | under 1% | A | A− | 30 min | $241,875 |
| Altadena | 1% | A− | A | 28 min | $128,720 |
| Los Angeles | 29% | B− | A+ | 31 min | $81,939 |
| San Marino | under 1% | A | A | 27 min | $214,167 |
| San Pasqual | under 1% | A+ | A | 33 min | $123,317 |
| East Pasadena | under 1% | A− | A+ | 26 min | $109,136 |
| South Pasadena | under 1% | A | A+ | 30 min | $127,175 |
| Glendale | 3% | B− | A | 27 min | $88,393 |
| Sierra Madre | under 1% | A+ | A | 28 min | $143,547 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pasadena’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 Pasadena: questions
What is the median household income in Pasadena?
$105,192 (±$3,444) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pasadena?
13.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pasadena?
27 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pasadena work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (29%, 18 mi), Burbank (6%, 11 mi), Glendale (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pasadena walkable?
Pasadena is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.6 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pasadena without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 63% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pasadena, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pasadena
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.