Photo: Travisthurston · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Penn Valley earn less than those in 66% of U.S. towns
For 9% of workers, the job is at home, next to 17% for California as a whole. Below the poverty line: 9.3% of residents, next to 12.0% across California. Penn Valley grades C for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Penn Valley stands out on work
Penn Valley workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 51 minutes each way, against 29 across California. Over a year that’s about 391 hours of commuting, 169 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 Penn Valley
58% of Penn Valley residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 36% of the jobs based in Penn Valley pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% 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 462 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Penn Valley’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Penn Valley is better than 29% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Penn Valley’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Penn Valley’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Penn Valley could be anywhere from D to B+.
Getting to work from Penn Valley takes about 51 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 16.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Penn Valley workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 585 commuters (the 9% 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.
The commute from Penn Valley, by distance
About 32% 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.
Jobs in Penn Valley: what the 328 are
328 jobs are based in Penn Valley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Penn Valley, 2013 → 2023: 238 → 328. 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 Penn Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Penn Valley by day and by night
On a workday 444 residents head out to work, 18 work right here, and 310 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
0.71 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.
22% of working residents work in Grass Valley
Where Penn Valley clocks in
22% 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.
In Penn Valley, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Penn Valley is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 642 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 7.6% of Penn Valley households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Penn Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, Penn Valley ranks 3,460th of 5,760 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Baywood Park CA | 1,580 | $217K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Irwindale CA | 1,439 | $114K | 4.3% | 6.5% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,458 | East Wheatfield Township PA | 2,113 | $51K | 16.5% | 2.9% | 7% | C |
| 3,459 | Buffalo WI | 1,446 | $78K | 13.6% | 4.0% | <1% | C |
| 3,460 | Penn Valley CA | 1,678 | $65K | 9.3% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| 3,461 | Sackets Harbor NY | 1,337 | $77K | 14.0% | 1.1% | 9% | C |
| 3,462 | Washburn WI | 2,045 | $62K | 6.7% | 2.6% | 23% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Penn Valley, 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 Penn Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Penn Valley?
$64,737 (±$43,311) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Penn Valley?
9.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Penn Valley?
51 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Penn Valley work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grass Valley (22%, 8 mi), Nevada City (6%, 10 mi), San Francisco (6%, 119 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Penn Valley walkable?
Penn Valley is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Penn Valley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Penn Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Penn Valley
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.