Photo: Aaron Guzman · CC BY-SA 4.0More people are out of work in Riverside (6.3%) than in 77% of U.S. towns
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 4.3 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 3.0 in Fontana. Riverside grades B for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in four work in Riverside; the top destination outside it is Corona (6%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Riverside, in brief
What’s behind Riverside’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Riverside is better than 58% of U.S. towns, #420 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Riverside’s grade up (ahead of 91% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Riverside could be anywhere from B− to B.
The workday shuffle in and out of Riverside
On a workday 97,765 residents head out to work, 29,903 work right here, and 119,316 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.
Commuting out of Riverside: the destinations
Where Riverside clocks in
6% of workers
4% 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.
Jobs in Riverside: what the 149,219 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Riverside, 2013 → 2023: 130,313 → 149,219. 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 Riverside’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Riverside takes about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Riverside workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 134,203 commuters (the 11% 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 Riverside commutes
About 16% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Riverside
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Riverside is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #229 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 5.0% 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 150,062 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 92% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 33% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.3 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). 4.5% of Riverside households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Riverside’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Ranked on jobs and income, Riverside is 30th among 66 U.S. towns of 226,000 to 436,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Oyster Bay NY | 301,115 | $160K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 19% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Fremont CA | 226,442 | $182K | 5.2% | 4.7% | 17% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Santa Clarita CA | 228,430 | $123K | 7.4% | 5.6% | 21% | A− |
| 14 | Irvine CA | 318,764 | $137K | 10.8% | 5.9% | 29% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Aurora CO | 410,053 | $88K | 11.9% | 5.9% | 23% | B |
| 29 | Lincoln NE | 301,522 | $72K | 12.7% | 3.3% | 79% | B |
| 30 | Riverside CA | 323,057 | $91K | 12.2% | 6.3% | 23% | B |
| 31 | Cape Coral FL | 236,264 | $78K | 10.7% | 3.8% | 23% | B |
| 32 | Tacoma WA | 229,816 | $86K | 12.4% | 5.6% | 28% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Cleveland OH | 363,608 | $41K | 30.6% | 10.8% | 42% | C− |
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 Riverside, the top three, the last and three more from California.
11% of Riverside works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Riverside workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside | – | B | A | 31 min | $91,045 |
| El Sobrante | under 3% | A | C+ | 37 min | $165,682 |
| Highgrove | under 3% | A | B | 31 min | $114,125 |
| Norco | under 3% | A | B+ | 37 min | $127,566 |
| Moreno Valley | 3% | B | B+ | 36 min | $93,222 |
| Woodcrest | under 3% | A− | B− | 40 min | $153,731 |
| March ARB | under 3% | B | A− | 36 min | $72,411 |
| Jurupa Valley | 2% | B+ | B+ | 32 min | $97,550 |
| Corona | 6% | B+ | B+ | 34 min | $109,242 |
| Home Gardens | under 3% | A− | A− | 37 min | $96,342 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Corona. Darker towns draw more of Riverside’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 Riverside: questions
What is the median household income in Riverside?
$91,045 (±$1,764) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Riverside?
12.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Riverside?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Riverside work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Corona (6%, 11 mi), Los Angeles (4%, 59 mi), Ontario (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Riverside walkable?
Riverside is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Riverside without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 33% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Riverside, from the people who make the trip.
More of Riverside
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.