Colony House · Photo: Los Angeles · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Simi Valley earn more than those in 89% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Simi Valley is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+). The poverty rate is 6.4%, next to 12.0% for California as a whole. About one in five work in Simi Valley itself; outside it, Los Angeles draws the most (26%, 26 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Simi Valley in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Simi Valley
Household income holds Simi Valley’s grade up ($122,081, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.0%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Simi Valley could be anywhere from B+ to A−.
The commute from Simi Valley, by distance
About 17% 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 leaves Simi Valley for work, and who comes in
On a workday 46,948 residents head out to work, 10,377 work right here, and 22,163 people come in from elsewhere.
About 100,000 people are in Simi Valley on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.57 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.
The towns that employ Simi Valley’s residents
Where Simi Valley clocks in
9% 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.
The 32,540 jobs based in Simi Valley
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Simi Valley, 2013 → 2023: 33,901 → 32,540. 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 Simi Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Simi Valley
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Simi Valley workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 52,261 commuters (the 19% 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.
In Simi Valley, the car does most of the work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.9% 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 64,626 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 78% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 17% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 75% 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). 2.8% of Simi Valley households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Simi Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Simi Valley next to U.S. towns of 87,000 to 169,000: 90th of 324 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Sunnyvale CA | 156,577 | $186K | 5.8% | 4.5% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Mission Viejo CA | 90,484 | $136K | 5.6% | 5.2% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Germantown MD | 90,719 | $118K | 8.8% | 5.6% | 8% | B+ |
| 89 | Stamford CT | 139,535 | $112K | 10.1% | 4.9% | 34% | B+ |
| 90 | Simi Valley CA | 124,861 | $122K | 6.4% | 5.0% | 18% | B+ |
| 91 | Lawrence KS | 96,367 | $65K | 17.4% | 4.4% | 52% | B+ |
| 92 | Hamilton Township NJ | 94,157 | $101K | 6.7% | 5.9% | 16% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 324 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Simi Valley, the top three, the last and three more from California.
12% of Simi Valley works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Thousand Oaks (9%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Simi Valley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simi Valley | – | B+ | B+ | 27 min | $122,081 |
| Santa Susana | under 2% | A− | C | 26 min | $99,783 |
| Thousand Oaks | 9% | B+ | A | 25 min | $135,603 |
| Moorpark | 3% | A− | B+ | 29 min | $148,480 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Simi Valley’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 Simi Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Simi Valley?
$122,081 (±$4,649) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Simi Valley?
6.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Simi Valley?
27 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Simi Valley work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (26%, 26 mi), Thousand Oaks (9%, 9 mi), Burbank (3%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Simi Valley walkable?
Simi Valley is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Simi Valley without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 17% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Simi Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Simi Valley
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.