Photo: Bobjgalindo · CC BY-SA 4.0Lapwai has 1.9 jobs for every working resident: 557 people commute in to work
Employers in Lapwai report 655 jobs for 341 working residents. Lapwai grades D for jobs and income and B− for walkability. For 3% of workers, the job is at home, against 13% across Idaho.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lapwai, in a few figures
Lapwai is where the jobs are
Lapwai has 655 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Lapwai and Lewiston trade workers both ways
Lewiston is the top workplace for Lapwai residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Lapwai come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Lapwai residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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 341 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Lapwai
On income, poverty and job access, Lapwai is better than 7% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lapwai’s grade.
Unemployment (3.4%) is left out: Lapwai’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, Lapwai could be anywhere from D− to C−.
In and out of Lapwai on a workday
On a workday 243 residents head out to work and 98 work right here.
About 1,600 people are in Lapwai on a workday afternoon, 25% 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.
Who travels to work in Lapwai, and from where
Where Lapwai clocks in
16% of workers
3% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Lapwai
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.
Services make up most of the work in Lapwai
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lapwai, 2013 → 2023: 733 → 655. 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 Lapwai’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Lapwai: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lapwai workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 365 commuters (the 3% 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.
Few in Lapwai walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lapwai is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.5% across Idaho, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 378 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). 2.2% of Lapwai households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Lapwai’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lapwai is 4,249th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 544 | Ucon ID | 1,196 | $89K | 4.2% | 1.4% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 610 | Robie Creek ID | 1,213 | $106K | 2.5% | 3.2% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 877 | Groveland ID | 1,422 | $76K | 2.0% | 4.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,247 | Paonia CO | 1,477 | $60K | 17.1% | 5.8% | 17% | D |
| 4,248 | Springfield CO | 1,293 | $48K | 12.5% | 0.8% | 58% | D |
| 4,249 | Lapwai ID | 1,251 | $57K | 19.4% | 3.4% | 29% | D |
| 4,250 | Pioneer OH | 1,419 | $45K | 21.8% | 5.1% | 10% | D |
| 4,251 | Onancock VA | 1,177 | $55K | 21.4% | 3.0% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Lapwai, 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 Lapwai: questions
What is the median household income in Lapwai?
$57,439 (±$10,268) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lapwai?
19.4%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lapwai?
14 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lapwai work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lewiston (16%, 9 mi), Orofino (3%, 27 mi), Moscow (2%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lapwai walkable?
Lapwai is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lapwai without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lapwai, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lapwai
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.