Photo: Biriosciwasco · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Wasco trail those of 86% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Wasco is better than 16% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (B). The poverty rate is 18.4%, against 12.0% across California. Home is the office for 3% of workers; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Wasco and work: the main findings
Wasco and Bakersfield trade workers both ways
Bakersfield is the top workplace for Wasco residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Wasco come from (27% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Wasco workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 17% across California. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Wasco are quick
The average trip to work takes 23 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. 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.
How Wasco earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Wasco’s grade up (ahead of 50% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($51,727, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wasco could be anywhere from D to C+.
Where Wasco’s working residents head each day
Where Wasco clocks in
16% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
Wasco’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wasco workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,728 commuters (the 3% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 6,600 residents head out to work, 1,321 work right here, and 4,129 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.
0.69 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.
Factories, building and farms: 29% of the jobs in Wasco
5,450 jobs are based in Wasco.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wasco, 2013 → 2023: 4,846 → 5,450. 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 Wasco’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Wasco
About 29% 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.
Driving is how Wasco gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 8,991 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 26% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 3.1% of Wasco households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Wasco’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 19,000 to 36,000, and where Wasco sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Manhattan Beach CA | 33,122 | $204K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 109 | Saratoga CA | 30,418 | $250K | 3.3% | 4.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,408 | East Niles CA | 28,532 | $55K | 28.7% | 12.6% | 6% | C− |
| 1,409 | Ashland KY | 20,996 | $53K | 22.4% | 7.7% | 39% | C− |
| 1,410 | Wasco CA | 26,525 | $52K | 18.4% | 7.0% | 17% | C− |
| 1,411 | Griffin GA | 23,896 | $44K | 25.2% | 6.3% | 17% | C− |
| 1,412 | Williamsport PA | 27,384 | $49K | 25.4% | 6.8% | 31% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,477 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Wasco, 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 Wasco: questions
What is the median household income in Wasco?
$51,727 (±$9,446) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wasco?
18.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wasco?
23 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wasco work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bakersfield (16%, 25 mi), Shafter (7%, 12 mi), Delano (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wasco walkable?
Wasco is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wasco without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wasco, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wasco
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.