Photo: Ian Poellet · CC BY-SA 4.0More than half of Shasta’s working residents commute to Redding
Measured by household income, Shasta is ahead of 84% of U.S. towns. Shasta grades B− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Only 3% work in Shasta itself; outside it, Redding draws the most (54%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Shasta and work: the main findings
More than half of Shasta works in Redding
172 working residents, 54%, have their main job in Redding, 6 miles away across the town line. That’s 18 times as many as work in Shasta itself. The commute map ↓
Most Shasta residents work close to home
66% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
A longer commute than the towns next door
Shasta averages 26 minutes each way, more than any bordering town (17 to 21 minutes). Next door ↓
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 321 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Shasta’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Shasta is better than 55% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Shasta’s grade up ($111,250, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (12.5%) is left out: Shasta’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, Shasta could be anywhere from C to A−.
The towns that employ Shasta’s residents
Where Shasta clocks in
54% of workers
2% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Shasta
About 21% 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.
Who works in Shasta, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 311 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 150 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Shasta on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.50 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
160 jobs are based in Shasta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shasta, 2013 → 2023: 76 → 160. 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 Shasta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Shasta: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shasta workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 511 commuters (the 14% 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 of Shasta commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shasta is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 591 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 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). 0.0% of Shasta households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shasta’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Shasta ranks: 1,777th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 19 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,775 | Hinsdale MA | 1,880 | $78K | 3.1% | 5.0% | 4% | B− |
| 1,776 | Pound WI | 1,435 | $84K | 7.2% | 3.4% | 5% | B− |
| 1,777 | Shasta CA | 1,387 | $111K | 8.7% | 12.5% | 3% | B− |
| 1,778 | Monroeville IN | 1,355 | $56K | 4.5% | 2.7% | 5% | B− |
| 1,779 | Granger TX | 1,228 | $73K | 11.2% | 6.5% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Shasta, the top three, the last and three more from California.
56% of Shasta works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Shasta workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shasta | – | B− | B− | 26 min | $111,250 |
| Centerville | 2% | A− | D | 21 min | $122,500 |
| Redding | 54% | C+ | A | 17 min | $70,466 |
| Keswick | under 1% | — | — | 21 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Keswick: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Redding. Darker towns draw more of Shasta’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 Shasta: questions
What is the median household income in Shasta?
$111,250 (±$27,895) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shasta?
8.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shasta?
26 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shasta work?
3% work in town.
Is Shasta walkable?
Shasta is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shasta 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 Shasta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shasta
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.