Photo: Don Ramey Logan · CC BY 4.0Household incomes put Trabuco Canyon near the very top of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Trabuco Canyon is among the highest-earning towns in the country. Poverty touches 7.2% of residents (California 12.0%). The two grades for Trabuco Canyon are A for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Trabuco Canyon at work: what stands out
The better-paid jobs are outside Trabuco Canyon
72% of Trabuco Canyon residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 39% of the jobs based in Trabuco Canyon pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 98% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
42% of the jobs based in Trabuco Canyon are held by workers 29 or younger, against 22% of Trabuco Canyon’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
A lot of Trabuco Canyon works from home
30% of Trabuco Canyon workers work from home, against 17% across California. Time on the road ↓
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 408 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Trabuco Canyon
On income, poverty and job access, Trabuco Canyon is better than 94% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($229,239, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.6%) is left out: Trabuco Canyon’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Trabuco Canyon could be anywhere from A to A+.
The 360 jobs based in Trabuco Canyon
360 jobs are based in Trabuco Canyon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Trabuco Canyon, 2013 → 2023: 196 → 360. 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 Trabuco Canyon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 35 minutes each way for Trabuco Canyon’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Trabuco Canyon workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 483 commuters (the 30% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Trabuco Canyon
On a workday 400 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 352 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 (0.88 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.
13% of working residents work in Irvine
Where Trabuco Canyon clocks in
13% of workers
5% 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.
How far it is to work from Trabuco Canyon
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.
In Trabuco Canyon, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Trabuco Canyon is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Trabuco Canyon near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 692 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 Trabuco Canyon households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Trabuco Canyon’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Trabuco Canyon ranks: 165th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 163 | Maple Plain MN | 1,653 | $94K | 3.7% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| 164 | Oak Ridge TX | 1,671 | $97K | 2.3% | 15.7% | <1% | A |
| 165 | Trabuco Canyon CA | 1,326 | $229K | 7.2% | 0.6% | 2% | A |
| 166 | Port Republic NJ | 1,125 | $123K | 1.3% | 9.0% | 0% | A |
| 167 | Menoken Township KS | 1,656 | $120K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Trabuco Canyon, the top three, the last and three more from California.
The towns around Trabuco Canyon
The biggest share goes to Lake Forest (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Trabuco Canyon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trabuco Canyon | – | A | C− | 35 min | $229,239 |
| Modjeska | under 3% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Lake Forest | 5% | A− | A− | 26 min | $135,175 |
| Rancho Santa Margarita | 4% | A | B+ | 26 min | $152,560 |
Same-state neighbors only. Modjeska: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Trabuco Canyon’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 Trabuco Canyon: questions
What is the median household income in Trabuco Canyon?
$229,239 (±$98,390) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Trabuco Canyon?
7.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Trabuco Canyon?
35 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 30% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Trabuco Canyon work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Irvine (13%, 10 mi), Los Angeles (8%, 52 mi), Orange (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Trabuco Canyon walkable?
Trabuco Canyon is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Trabuco Canyon without a car?
<1% 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 Trabuco Canyon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Trabuco Canyon
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.