Photo: Colin Marquardt, Colin Marquardt · Public domainHouseholds in Petaluma have higher incomes than those in 86% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 6.5%, where California as a whole has 12.0%. Petaluma grades B+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 4.5 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 1.0 in Santa Rosa.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Petaluma, in brief
What’s behind Petaluma’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Petaluma is better than 73% of U.S. towns, #252 of 847 in California. Household income holds Petaluma’s grade up ($115,430, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (4.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Petaluma could be anywhere from B to A−.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 18,501 residents head out to work, 5,602 work right here, and 22,521 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.17 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.
9% of working residents work in Santa Rosa
Where Petaluma clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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.
66% of the jobs in Petaluma pay over $3,333 a month
28,123 jobs are based in Petaluma.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Petaluma, 2013 → 2023: 21,966 → 28,123. 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 Petaluma’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Petaluma’s commute takes about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Petaluma workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 23,705 commuters (the 20% 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.
How many miles Petaluma commutes
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.
Petaluma is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Petaluma is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns, #141 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 5.7% 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 29,806 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, 98% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 82% 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). 5.2% of Petaluma households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Petaluma’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 737 U.S. towns of 42,000 to 81,000, Petaluma comes 307th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Cupertino CA | 58,333 | $235K | 4.1% | 4.0% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | South San Francisco CA | 64,941 | $137K | 6.7% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Dublin CA | 71,602 | $214K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 305 | Rogers AR | 76,956 | $87K | 10.5% | 2.5% | 28% | B+ |
| 306 | Framingham MA | 73,021 | $107K | 10.4% | 4.8% | 16% | B+ |
| 307 | Petaluma CA | 59,688 | $115K | 6.5% | 4.6% | 23% | B+ |
| 308 | Fountain Valley CA | 55,508 | $115K | 8.0% | 5.6% | 8% | B+ |
| 309 | Bolingbrook IL | 74,803 | $108K | 9.2% | 5.7% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 737 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Petaluma, 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 Petaluma: questions
What is the median household income in Petaluma?
$115,430 (±$6,370) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Petaluma?
6.5%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Petaluma?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Petaluma work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Rosa (9%, 15 mi), San Francisco (8%, 34 mi), Novato (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Petaluma walkable?
Petaluma is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 14.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Petaluma without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 98% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Petaluma, from the people who make the trip.
More of Petaluma
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.