Photo: Tuxyso · CC BY-SA 3.0Rancho Santa Fe’s household incomes are higher than in 97% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Rancho Santa Fe are A+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Poverty touches 4.9% of residents, against 12.0% across California. Home is the office for 32% of workers; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Rancho Santa Fe apart on work
Rancho Santa Fe and San Diego trade workers both ways
San Diego is the top workplace for Rancho Santa Fe residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Rancho Santa Fe come from (24% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Rancho Santa Fe is where the jobs are
Rancho Santa Fe has 1,249 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% 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 ↓
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 768 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Rancho Santa Fe’s grade
Household income is its strongest input ($175,792, 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 (9.8%) is left out: Rancho Santa Fe’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rancho Santa Fe could be anywhere from A to A+.
Who travels to work in Rancho Santa Fe, and from where
Where Rancho Santa Fe clocks in
27% 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.
How a workday changes Rancho Santa Fe
On a workday 745 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 1,226 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,700 people are in Rancho Santa Fe on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Half of Rancho Santa Fe commutes less than 21 miles
About 42% 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.
Most jobs in Rancho Santa Fe are in services
1,249 jobs are based in Rancho Santa Fe.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rancho Santa Fe, 2013 → 2023: 2,020 → 1,249. 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 Rancho Santa Fe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Rancho Santa Fe’s commute takes about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rancho Santa Fe workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 504 commuters (the 32% 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.
Most trips from Rancho Santa Fe start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rancho Santa Fe is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rancho Santa Fe 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 744 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 2.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 71% 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). 0.0% of Rancho Santa Fe households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rancho Santa Fe’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Rancho Santa Fe ranks: 115th of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Harmony Grove CA | 2,585 | $227K | 4.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 79 | Rolling Hills CA | 1,641 | $250K | 5.5% | 5.6% | 2% | A+ |
| 80 | Ross CA | 2,304 | $250K | 4.8% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 113 | Somerford Township OH | 3,078 | $117K | 3.5% | 1.0% | 3% | A+ |
| 114 | Empire WI | 2,790 | $125K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| 115 | Rancho Santa Fe CA | 2,260 | $176K | 4.9% | 9.8% | 3% | A+ |
| 116 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| 117 | Gates Mills OH | 2,236 | $231K | 6.1% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | 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 Rancho Santa Fe, the top three, the last and three more from California.
How Rancho Santa Fe compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Rancho Santa Fe workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rancho Santa Fe | – | A+ | B− | 32 min | $175,792 |
| Fairbanks Ranch | under 2% | A+ | C+ | 31 min | $250,000+ |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Rancho Santa Fe’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 Rancho Santa Fe: questions
What is the median household income in Rancho Santa Fe?
$175,792 (±$56,145) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rancho Santa Fe?
4.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rancho Santa Fe?
32 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 32% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rancho Santa Fe work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Diego (27%, 14 mi), Los Angeles (7%, 98 mi), Carlsbad (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rancho Santa Fe walkable?
Rancho Santa Fe is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rancho Santa Fe without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rancho Santa Fe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rancho Santa Fe
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.