Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 3.0Columbine Valley’s household incomes are among the highest in the country
Measured by household income, Columbine Valley is among the highest-earning towns in the country. Jobs and income earn Columbine Valley A+; getting around on foot earns it B. 40% of workers work from home, against 21% across Colorado.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Columbine Valley
Columbine Valley and Denver trade workers both ways
Denver is the top workplace for Columbine Valley residents (28%) and also where the most people who work in Columbine Valley come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A lot of Columbine Valley works from home
40% of Columbine Valley workers work from home, against 21% across Colorado. Time on the road ↓
Four in five Columbine Valley workers earn over $40,000 a year
80% of Columbine Valley’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 689 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Columbine Valley’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Columbine Valley is among the top U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Columbine Valley’s grade. It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.3%) is left out: Columbine Valley’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
The Census reports Columbine Valley’s median household income as $250,000+, the top of its scale; the grade ranks it as tied with the 111 other graded places at that ceiling.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Columbine Valley stays A+.
28% of working residents work in Denver
Where Columbine Valley clocks in
28% of workers
8% 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.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Columbine Valley
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Columbine Valley workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 515 commuters (the 40% who work from home are left out). Across Colorado: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Most jobs in Columbine Valley are in services
360 jobs are based in Columbine Valley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Columbine Valley, 2014 → 2024: 290 → 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Columbine Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Columbine Valley, and who commutes in
On a workday 679 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 350 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Columbine Valley on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.52 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 2024, primary jobs.
Short hops and long hauls from Columbine Valley
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how Columbine Valley gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Columbine Valley is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 6.4% across Colorado.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 855 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 3.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 75% 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). 0.4% of Columbine Valley households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Columbine Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Columbine Valley is 5th of 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Cabin John MD | 2,179 | $250K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 5 | Columbine Valley CO | 1,684 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 6 | Meridian Hills IN | 1,800 | $212K | 0.8% | 3.6% | 2% | A+ |
| 7 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 721 | Perry Park CO | 1,570 | $158K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 998 | Nederland CO | 1,463 | $123K | 2.7% | 3.4% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,060 | Idaho Springs CO | 1,842 | $89K | 6.9% | 3.5% | 17% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Columbine Valley, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
Columbine Valley and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Littleton (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Columbine Valley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbine Valley | – | A+ | B | 24 min | $250,000+ |
| Littleton | 8% | A | A | 25 min | $98,839 |
| Columbine | under 3% | A | B+ | 26 min | $131,232 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Columbine 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 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- A ceiling on income. The Census stops at $250,000+, so the true median may be higher.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Columbine Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Columbine Valley?
$250,000+ (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Columbine Valley?
0.0%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Columbine Valley?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 40% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Columbine Valley work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Denver (28%, 14 mi), Littleton (8%, 1 mi), Greenwood Village (6%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Columbine Valley walkable?
Columbine Valley is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Columbine Valley without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Columbine Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Columbine Valley
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.