Photo: Toglenn · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Yucca Valley works elsewhere
At home: 8% of workers have no commute at all (California 17%). 4,295 jobs are based in Yucca Valley for 9,754 working residents. Jobs and income earn Yucca Valley D; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Yucca Valley, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
55% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
No single place dominates Yucca Valley’s commute
The biggest draw, Palm Springs, gets only 5% of working residents, and 58% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Yucca Valley residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Yucca Valley
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Yucca Valley is better than 10% of U.S. towns, #784 of 847 in California. Household income holds Yucca Valley’s grade up ($59,563, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Yucca Valley could be anywhere from D− to C.
How far it is to work from Yucca Valley
About 55% 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.
5% of working residents work in Palm Springs
Where Yucca Valley clocks in
5% of workers
3% 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 many people are in Yucca Valley by day
On a workday 8,302 residents head out to work, 1,452 work right here, and 2,843 people come in from elsewhere.
About 16,000 people are in Yucca Valley on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Yucca Valley’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Yucca Valley, 2013 → 2023: 4,080 → 4,295. 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 Yucca Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Yucca Valley takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Yucca Valley workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,499 commuters (the 8% 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.
Yucca Valley is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Yucca Valley is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns, #583 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Yucca Valley 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 9,217 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 40% 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). 7.4% of Yucca Valley households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Yucca Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Yucca Valley compares with U.S. towns of 15,000 to 30,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Coto de Caza CA | 15,190 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,803 | El Dorado AR | 16,609 | $49K | 23.3% | 7.0% | 49% | D |
| 1,804 | Corcoran CA | 22,358 | $60K | 20.7% | 11.1% | 19% | D |
| 1,805 | Yucca Valley CA | 21,887 | $60K | 15.7% | 6.6% | 15% | D |
| 1,806 | Palestine TX | 19,555 | $45K | 17.6% | 7.0% | 34% | D |
| 1,807 | Marion IN | 28,234 | $43K | 29.6% | 7.7% | 43% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,847 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Yucca Valley, the top three, the last and three more from California.
How Yucca Valley compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Joshua Tree (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Yucca Valley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yucca Valley | – | D | B+ | 28 min | $59,563 |
| Joshua Tree | 3% | D | B | 30 min | $66,291 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Yucca 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 Yucca Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Yucca Valley?
$59,563 (±$6,737) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Yucca Valley?
15.7%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Yucca Valley?
28 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Yucca Valley work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Palm Springs (5%, 23 mi), Los Angeles (5%, 114 mi), Twentynine Palms (3%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Yucca Valley walkable?
Yucca Valley is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Yucca Valley without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Yucca Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Yucca 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.