Photo: Russell Lee · Public domainCascade draws 521 commuters a day, with 1.8 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Cascade is behind 83% of U.S. towns. There are 613 jobs in Cascade; 346 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Cascade D−; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cascade at work: what stands out
Cascade’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cascade is Boise City, 64 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (49) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Cascade is where the jobs are
Cascade has 613 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
41% 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 346 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Cascade’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Cascade is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Cascade’s grade up ($53,750, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.8%) is left out: Cascade’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, Cascade could be anywhere from D− to C.
How many miles Cascade commutes
About 41% 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.
Cascade fills up on a workday
On a workday 254 residents head out to work and 92 work right here.
About 1,300 people are in Cascade on a workday afternoon, 26% more 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.
Where Cascade’s workforce comes from
Where Cascade clocks in
14% of workers
13% 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.
Cascade works in goods: 36% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cascade, 2013 → 2023: 401 → 613. 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 Cascade’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 29 minutes to work from Cascade
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cascade workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 274 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across Idaho: 84% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Cascade is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cascade is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.5% across Idaho, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 279 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). 4.9% of Cascade households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cascade’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Cascade compares with U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 318 | Ucon ID | 1,196 | $89K | 4.2% | 1.4% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 358 | Robie Creek ID | 1,213 | $106K | 2.5% | 3.2% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 642 | Dover ID | 1,164 | $100K | 4.7% | 1.8% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,014 | Honaker VA | 1,191 | $44K | 26.5% | 0.5% | 4% | D− |
| 3,015 | Clay Township MO | 1,126 | $50K | 27.7% | 1.5% | 11% | D− |
| 3,016 | Cascade ID | 1,018 | $54K | 32.0% | 8.8% | 27% | D− |
| 3,017 | Milford IL | 1,116 | $47K | 26.8% | 4.2% | 10% | D− |
| 3,018 | Fullerton NE | 1,228 | $48K | 26.9% | 3.2% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Cascade, the top three, the last and three more from Idaho.
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 Cascade: questions
What is the median household income in Cascade?
$53,750 (±$8,007) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cascade?
32.0%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cascade?
29 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cascade work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boise City (14%, 64 mi), McCall (13%, 28 mi), Meridian (4%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cascade walkable?
Cascade is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cascade without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cascade, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cascade
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.