Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 3.0Most of Hayden commutes out: there are 0.6 jobs for every working resident
For 11% of workers, the job is at home; Colorado has 21%. There are 491 jobs in Hayden; 856 of its residents have a job. Hayden grades B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Hayden, in brief
38% of Hayden works in Steamboat Springs
323 working residents, 38%, have their main job in Steamboat Springs, 23 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Hayden itself. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% 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 ↓
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; with 856 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Hayden: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hayden is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Hayden’s grade up (6.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hayden could be anywhere from D to A−.
38% of working residents work in Steamboat Springs
Where Hayden clocks in
38% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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 far it is to work from Hayden
About 36% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Hayden
On a workday 751 residents head out to work, 105 work right here, and 386 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Hayden on a workday afternoon, 16% 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.
The kinds of work in Hayden
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hayden, 2013 → 2023: 516 → 491. 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 Hayden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes each way for Hayden’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hayden workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 977 commuters (the 11% 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.
Hayden is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hayden is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hayden 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 1,101 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.9% of Hayden households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Hayden’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Hayden ranks: 2,190th of 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Columbine Valley CO | 1,684 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 62 | Holly Hills CO | 2,572 | $122K | 6.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Acres Green CO | 2,639 | $142K | 8.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,188 | Thorsby AL | 2,203 | $76K | 8.8% | 3.4% | 3% | B− |
| 2,189 | Charleston AR | 2,760 | $57K | 9.9% | 1.6% | 19% | B− |
| 2,190 | Hayden CO | 2,250 | $91K | 6.6% | 3.9% | 12% | B− |
| 2,191 | Pilot Township IL | 1,938 | $92K | 11.4% | 6.2% | 6% | B− |
| 2,192 | Sullivan Township MI | 2,725 | $65K | 8.0% | 4.6% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Hayden, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
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 Hayden: questions
What is the median household income in Hayden?
$90,804 (±$35,138) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hayden?
6.6%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hayden?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hayden work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Steamboat Springs (38%, 23 mi), Denver (6%, 136 mi), Craig (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hayden walkable?
Hayden is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hayden without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hayden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hayden
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.