Households in Rainbow earn more than those in 80% of U.S. towns
Only 4% stay in Rainbow for work; outside it, San Diego is the main destination (17%, 40 miles). The poverty rate is 7.7%, next to 12.0% for California as a whole. Jobs and income earn Rainbow A−; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Rainbow: the figures worth knowing
Rainbow’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Rainbow is San Diego, 40 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (148) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Rainbow makes and builds things
50% of the jobs based in Rainbow are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Rainbow residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. 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 846 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Rainbow’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rainbow is better than 78% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($104,338, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (6.9%) is left out: Rainbow’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, Rainbow could be anywhere from C+ to A+.
The commute from Rainbow, by distance
About 19% 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.
Goods jobs make up 50% of work in Rainbow
1,097 jobs are based in Rainbow.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rainbow, 2013 → 2023: 1,000 → 1,097. 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 Rainbow’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Rainbow for work, and who comes in
On a workday 810 residents head out to work, 36 work right here, and 1,061 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Rainbow on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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 Rainbow: the destinations
Where Rainbow clocks in
17% of workers
5% 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.
A commute of about 33 minutes in Rainbow
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rainbow workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 795 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.
In Rainbow, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rainbow is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 884 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 48% 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). 0.3% of Rainbow households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rainbow’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Rainbow is 823rd of 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Baywood Park CA | 1,580 | $217K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Harmony Grove CA | 2,585 | $227K | 4.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Irwindale CA | 1,439 | $114K | 4.3% | 6.5% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 821 | Lanesburgh Township MN | 2,052 | $122K | 5.8% | 3.4% | <1% | A− |
| 822 | Monroe Township OH | 1,801 | $94K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A− |
| 823 | Rainbow CA | 2,029 | $104K | 7.7% | 6.9% | 4% | A− |
| 824 | Cabana Colony FL | 2,045 | $90K | 13.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A− |
| 825 | Waverly MN | 2,293 | $112K | 10.6% | 2.0% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Rainbow, 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 Rainbow: questions
What is the median household income in Rainbow?
$104,338 (±$36,879) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rainbow?
7.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rainbow?
33 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rainbow work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Diego (17%, 40 mi), Escondido (5%, 20 mi), Carlsbad (5%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rainbow walkable?
Rainbow is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rainbow without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rainbow, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rainbow
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.