Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0More people are out of work in Turlock (8.4%) than in 90% of U.S. towns
7% of workers have no commute at all, against 17% across California. Turlock grades C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 4.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 0.6 in Modesto.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Turlock
How Turlock earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Turlock is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #550 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Turlock’s grade up (ahead of 70% 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, Turlock could be anywhere from C+ to B−.
Who leaves Turlock for work, and who comes in
On a workday 21,939 residents head out to work, 7,315 work right here, and 18,721 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 (0.89 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.
14% of working residents work in Modesto
Where Turlock clocks in
14% of workers
4% 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.
The kinds of work in Turlock
26,036 jobs are based in Turlock.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Turlock, 2013 → 2023: 22,532 → 26,036. 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 Turlock’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way for Turlock’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Turlock workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 29,032 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.
Miles to work from Turlock
About 27% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Turlock
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Turlock is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #346 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.0% 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 31,336 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 96% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 29% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 82% 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). 6.7% of Turlock households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Turlock’s commuters take a bus or train.
Turlock places 443rd of 599 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 51,000 to 98,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Cupertino CA | 58,333 | $235K | 4.1% | 4.0% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | South San Francisco CA | 64,941 | $137K | 6.7% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Dublin CA | 71,602 | $214K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 441 | Conway AR | 72,328 | $63K | 16.9% | 3.6% | 41% | C+ |
| 442 | Penn Township IN | 68,726 | $66K | 12.5% | 5.3% | 20% | C+ |
| 443 | Turlock CA | 72,864 | $83K | 11.3% | 8.4% | 25% | C+ |
| 444 | Waukegan IL | 87,940 | $72K | 15.3% | 6.4% | 16% | C+ |
| 445 | Colton CA | 53,383 | $71K | 13.7% | 7.5% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 599 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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 Turlock, the top three, the last and three more from California.
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 Turlock: questions
What is the median household income in Turlock?
$82,995 (±$4,221) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Turlock?
11.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Turlock?
26 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Turlock work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Modesto (14%, 12 mi), Ceres (4%, 9 mi), Stockton (2%, 41 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Turlock walkable?
Turlock is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 13.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Turlock without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 29% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Turlock, from the people who make the trip.
More of Turlock
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.