Fern Forest’s household incomes are lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D−: better than 30% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B−: more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 49 minutes each way (Hawaii 26, U.S. 26). Only 0% work in Fern Forest; the top destination outside it is Hilo (32%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Fern Forest’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fern Forest is better than 30% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Fern Forest’s grade.
Unemployment (3.6%) is left out: Fern Forest’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Fern Forest could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 97 residents head out to work, 0 work right here, and 24 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.
0.25 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.
32% of working residents work in Hilo
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Fern Forest clocks in
Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
24 jobs are based in Fern Forest. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Fern Forest’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fern Forest, 2013 → 2023: 5 → 24. 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.
About 49 minutes each way, longer than most of Hawaii
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 15.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fern Forest workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 250 commuters (the 17% who work from home are left out). Across Hawaii: 72% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Fern Forest commutes less than 20 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 44% 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.
Most trips from Fern Forest start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fern Forest is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.0% across Hawaii, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 302 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). 6.6% of Fern Forest households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fern Forest’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Fern Forest compares with U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Fern Forest, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 238 | Mahinahina HI | 1,027 | $163K | 1.8% | 6.3% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 331 | Kaanapali HI | 1,170 | $129K | 4.5% | 17.6% | 27% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 771 | Kaaawa HI | 1,328 | $132K | 11.0% | 0.9% | 0% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,740 | Pinon AZ | 1,159 | $46K | 43.2% | 29.8% | 1% | D− |
| 3,741 | Garberville CA | 1,415 | $40K | 42.6% | 2.1% | 22% | D− |
| 3,742 | Fern Forest HI | 1,088 | $43K | 30.6% | 3.6% | 0% | D− |
| 3,743 | Church Rock NM | 1,381 | $35K | 33.7% | 6.1% | 3% | D− |
| 3,744 | Fort Washakie WY | 1,219 | $37K | 32.3% | 19.3% | 32% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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.
Fern Forest and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Mountain View (4%). Darker towns draw more of Fern Forest’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fern Forest workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fern Forest | – | D− | B− | 49 min | $42,917 |
| Mountain View | 4% | D | B− | 40 min | $69,299 |
| Eden Roc | under 3% | D− | D | 45 min | $24,771 |
| Royal Hawaiian Estates | 4% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Royal Hawaiian Estates: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Fern Forest: questions
What is the median household income in Fern Forest?
$42,917 (±$17,594) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fern Forest?
30.6%, against 10.0% across Hawaii and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fern Forest?
49 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fern Forest work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hilo (32%, 16 mi), Urban Honolulu (8%, 218 mi), Kailua (6%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fern Forest walkable?
Fern Forest is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fern Forest without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fern Forest, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fern Forest
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.