Schubert Theatre · Photo: publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Gooding earn less than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 27.5% of residents, next to 10.6% across Idaho. Jobs and income earn Gooding D; getting around on foot earns it A. About one in four work in Gooding; the top destination outside it is Twin Falls (11%, 29 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Gooding and work: the main findings
Gooding trades workers with the towns around it
Gooding has about as many jobs (1,668) as working residents (1,589), but they are mostly different people: 1,198 residents leave for work each day while 1,277 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Gooding are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Gooding’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Gooding is Twin Falls, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (177) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A young workforce
31% of Gooding’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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.
How Gooding earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gooding is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #52 of 59 in Idaho. Unemployment holds Gooding’s grade up (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($41,899, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gooding could be anywhere from D− to C+.
The daily commute in and out of Gooding
On a workday 1,198 residents head out to work, 391 work right here, and 1,277 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.05 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Near or far: the trip to work from Gooding
About 21% 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.
What the 1,668 jobs in Gooding are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gooding, 2013 → 2023: 1,345 → 1,668. 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 Gooding’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from Gooding work
Where Gooding clocks in
11% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
Gooding’s commute takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gooding workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,331 commuters (the 10% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Gooding
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gooding is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #5 of 59 in Idaho. Both inputs place Gooding 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 1,477 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). 3.4% of Gooding households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gooding’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200, Gooding ranks 3,748th of 4,264 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 719 | Hidden Springs ID | 3,378 | $163K | 7.2% | 4.3% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,137 | Ketchum ID | 3,643 | $93K | 5.2% | 0.0% | 37% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,326 | Iona ID | 3,179 | $85K | 12.2% | 1.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,746 | Triangle NY | 2,727 | $72K | 19.0% | 13.8% | 14% | D |
| 3,747 | Indian Hills TX | 2,961 | $33K | 66.8% | 3.4% | 0% | D |
| 3,748 | Gooding ID | 3,855 | $42K | 27.5% | 3.3% | 25% | D |
| 3,749 | Manistique MI | 2,868 | $38K | 18.4% | 3.3% | 41% | D |
| 3,750 | Fillmore UT | 2,874 | $66K | 10.5% | 9.7% | 46% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Gooding, 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 Gooding: questions
What is the median household income in Gooding?
$41,899 (±$14,165) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gooding?
27.5%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gooding?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gooding work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Twin Falls (11%, 29 mi), Boise City (4%, 89 mi), Jerome (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gooding walkable?
Gooding is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gooding without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gooding, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gooding
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.