Photo: Dicklyon · CC BY-SA 4.0At 8.9%, unemployment in Salida is higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are higher than in 73% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Salida are B for jobs and income and B for walkability. 7% of workers work from home; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Salida, in brief
Salida trades workers with the towns around it
Salida has about as many jobs (5,571) as working residents (5,945), but they are mostly different people: 5,692 residents leave for work each day while 5,318 people come in. Only 5% of the jobs in Salida are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Salida and Modesto trade workers both ways
Modesto is the top workplace for Salida residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Salida come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
What’s behind Salida’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Salida is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #431 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Salida’s grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Salida could be anywhere from C+ to A.
How many people are in Salida by day
On a workday 5,692 residents head out to work, 253 work right here, and 5,318 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 (0.94 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.
20% of working residents work in Modesto
Where Salida clocks in
20% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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.
Salida works in goods: 30% of its jobs
5,571 jobs are based in Salida.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Salida, 2013 → 2023: 4,254 → 5,571. 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 Salida’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 32 minutes each way for Salida’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Salida workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,235 commuters (the 7% 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 far it is to work from Salida
About 26% 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 trips from Salida start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Salida is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #611 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% 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 6,683 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 76% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 28% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 2.2% of Salida households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Salida’s commuters take a bus or train.
Salida places 1,254th of 2,227 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,252 | Pleasant Hill IA | 11,239 | $91K | 8.9% | 8.2% | 3% | B |
| 1,253 | McPherson KS | 13,918 | $78K | 13.5% | 1.9% | 40% | B |
| 1,254 | Salida CA | 13,900 | $95K | 8.2% | 8.9% | 4% | B |
| 1,255 | Rifle CO | 10,844 | $80K | 6.0% | 3.0% | 16% | B |
| 1,256 | Somersworth NH | 12,171 | $75K | 11.2% | 2.8% | 11% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Salida, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work next door: 20% of Salida’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Modesto. Darker towns draw more of Salida’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 Salida: questions
What is the median household income in Salida?
$94,935 (±$8,905) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Salida?
8.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Salida?
32 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Salida work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Modesto (20%, 7 mi), Stockton (6%, 22 mi), Manteca (3%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Salida walkable?
Salida is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 11.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Salida without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 28% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Salida, from the people who make the trip.
More of Salida
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.