Photo: Greg L. Wright - SnapJag · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Sun Valley have higher incomes than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Sun Valley B; getting around on foot earns it A. The poverty rate is 6.0% (Idaho 10.6%). For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 1.3 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 2.7 in Boise City.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Sun Valley in brief
Sun Valley has far more jobs than workers
Sun Valley has 1,967 jobs, 3.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,200 people are in town, 82% more than the 1,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Many jobs in Sun Valley pay little
42% of the jobs based in Sun Valley pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 35% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Most Sun Valley residents work close to home
61% 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 504 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Sun Valley: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Sun Valley is better than 63% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Sun Valley’s grade up ($125,987, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Sun Valley’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sun Valley could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Sun Valley by day and by night
On a workday 380 residents head out to work, 124 work right here, and 1,843 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,200 people are in Sun Valley on a workday afternoon, 82% more than live here.
3.9 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Sun Valley
1,967 jobs are based in Sun Valley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sun Valley, 2013 → 2023: 1,376 → 1,967. 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 Sun Valley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Sun Valley
About 27% 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.
Where the people who work in Sun Valley live
Where Sun Valley clocks in
29% of workers
10% of workers
6% 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.
Sun Valley’s commute takes about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sun Valley workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 666 commuters (the 17% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Sun Valley
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sun Valley is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.5% across Idaho, on an EPA index of 8.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 807 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 62% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.0% of Sun Valley households have no vehicle (Idaho 3.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 8% of Sun Valley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400, Sun Valley ranks 1,560th of 6,085 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 922 | Robie Creek ID | 1,213 | $106K | 2.5% | 3.2% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,276 | Groveland ID | 1,422 | $76K | 2.0% | 4.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,558 | Vista Santa Rosa CA | 2,333 | $70K | 5.7% | 3.4% | 3% | B |
| 1,559 | Leadville North CO | 1,417 | $98K | 1.3% | 2.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,560 | Sun Valley ID | 1,776 | $126K | 6.0% | 0.0% | 25% | B |
| 1,561 | Anna OH | 1,566 | $81K | 8.0% | 10.5% | 6% | B |
| 1,562 | Liberty Township IN | 2,082 | $85K | 7.6% | 0.0% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,140 | Malad City ID | 2,338 | $77K | 8.2% | 1.4% | 35% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Sun Valley, the top three, the last and three more from Idaho.
29% of Sun Valley works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sun Valley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Valley | – | B | A | 13 min | $125,987 |
| Ketchum | 29% | B+ | A+ | 13 min | $93,046 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Ketchum. Darker towns draw more of Sun Valley’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Sun Valley: questions
What is the median household income in Sun Valley?
$125,987 (±$30,565) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sun Valley?
6.0%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sun Valley?
13 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sun Valley work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ketchum (29%, 2 mi), Hailey (10%, 12 mi), Boise City (6%, 95 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sun Valley walkable?
Sun Valley is more walkable than 91% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sun Valley without a car?
8% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sun Valley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sun Valley
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.