Pena Adobe · Photo: Brian Irwin · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Vacaville have higher incomes than those in 84% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 8.2%, where California as a whole has 12.0%. Vacaville grades B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 1.0 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 3.2 in Vallejo.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Vacaville earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Vacaville is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #340 of 847 in California. Household income holds Vacaville’s grade up ($111,126, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.8%, 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, Vacaville could be anywhere from B to B+.
Who leaves Vacaville for work, and who comes in
On a workday 33,677 residents head out to work, 9,106 work right here, and 23,174 people come in from elsewhere.
About 93,000 people are in Vacaville on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 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 Fairfield
Where Vacaville clocks in
13% of workers
6% 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 Vacaville
32,280 jobs are based in Vacaville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vacaville, 2013 → 2023: 27,740 → 32,280. 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 Vacaville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 28 minutes each way, about the CA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vacaville workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 40,217 commuters (the 12% 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.
How far it is to work from Vacaville
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.
In Vacaville, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vacaville is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #461 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% 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 45,911 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 89% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 78% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 59% 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). 4.0% of Vacaville households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Vacaville’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
How Vacaville ranks: 186th of 408 U.S. towns of 73,000 to 140,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Berkeley CA | 121,911 | $108K | 17.3% | 5.6% | 21% | A |
| 22 | Mountain View CA | 85,438 | $190K | 6.0% | 3.7% | 16% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Livermore CA | 83,457 | $161K | 4.9% | 3.6% | 23% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 184 | Rio Rancho NM | 114,419 | $90K | 7.4% | 4.6% | 19% | B+ |
| 185 | Pasadena CA | 135,804 | $105K | 13.3% | 5.6% | 20% | B+ |
| 186 | Vacaville CA | 103,850 | $111K | 8.2% | 5.8% | 21% | B+ |
| 187 | Longmont CO | 100,109 | $91K | 8.6% | 4.8% | 26% | B+ |
| 188 | Auburn WA | 86,301 | $98K | 8.9% | 6.0% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 408 | 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 Vacaville, the top three, the last and three more from California.
13% of Vacaville works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Vacaville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vacaville | – | B+ | A− | 28 min | $111,126 |
| Hartley | under 2% | A | D | 24 min | $124,254 |
| Elmira | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Fairfield | 13% | B | A− | 31 min | $101,895 |
Same-state neighbors only. Elmira: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Fairfield. Darker towns draw more of Vacaville’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 Vacaville: questions
What is the median household income in Vacaville?
$111,126 (±$3,405) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vacaville?
8.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vacaville?
28 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vacaville work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fairfield (13%, 8 mi), Sacramento (6%, 31 mi), San Francisco (4%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Vacaville walkable?
Vacaville is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 13.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vacaville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 78% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vacaville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vacaville
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.