Minerva Club of Santa Maria · Photo: ELEAZARCH · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Santa Maria (7.3%) is higher than in 84% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 17.5 in Los Angeles. For jobs and income Santa Maria is better than 37% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A). Home is the office for 5% of workers; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Santa Maria
Commutes from Santa Maria are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
Santa Maria makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Santa Maria are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Santa Maria residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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.
Income, poverty and work: Santa Maria’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Santa Maria’s grade up (ahead of 65% 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, Santa Maria could be anywhere from C to C+.
Time on the road from Santa Maria: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Santa Maria workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 45,590 commuters (the 5% 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.
Santa Maria works in goods: 36% of its jobs
39,678 jobs are based in Santa Maria.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Santa Maria, 2013 → 2023: 35,640 → 39,678. 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 Santa Maria’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Santa Maria’s commute, mile by mile
About 31% 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.
A workday in Santa Maria: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 23,195 residents head out to work, 14,938 work right here, and 24,740 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 (1.04 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.
Where Santa Maria goes to work
Where Santa Maria clocks in
4% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Santa Maria
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.8% 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 47,828 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 99% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 41% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 72% 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). 6.3% of Santa Maria households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Santa Maria’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
For jobs and income, Santa Maria is 307th of 378 U.S. towns of 78,000 to 150,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| 3 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| 18 | Mountain View CA | 85,438 | $190K | 6.0% | 3.7% | 16% | A |
| 19 | Livermore CA | 83,457 | $161K | 4.9% | 3.6% | 23% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 305 | Spring Hill FL | 119,983 | $68K | 11.8% | 5.5% | 15% | C+ |
| 306 | Tuscaloosa AL | 114,316 | $51K | 25.1% | 7.7% | 46% | C+ |
| 307 | Santa Maria CA | 111,390 | $85K | 17.3% | 7.3% | 39% | C+ |
| 308 | Lafayette LA | 123,311 | $62K | 18.3% | 5.2% | 53% | C+ |
| 309 | Topeka KS | 125,795 | $57K | 15.7% | 4.9% | 66% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Flint MI | 79,306 | $38K | 34.1% | 14.8% | 20% | 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 Santa Maria, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work in the towns next to Santa Maria
The biggest share goes to Orcutt (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Santa Maria workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Maria | – | C+ | A | 22 min | $84,746 |
| Orcutt | 3% | B+ | A | 22 min | $111,416 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Santa Maria’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 Santa Maria: questions
What is the median household income in Santa Maria?
$84,746 (±$4,196) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Santa Maria?
17.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Santa Maria?
22 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Santa Maria work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Luis Obispo (4%, 26 mi), Los Angeles (3%, 132 mi), Orcutt (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Santa Maria walkable?
Santa Maria is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 13.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Santa Maria without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 41% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Santa Maria, from the people who make the trip.
More of Santa Maria
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.