Photo: User Mxobe on en.wikipedia · Public domainKalamazoo has 1.7 jobs for every working resident: 35,198 people commute in to work
Jobs & income C: better than 30% of U.S. towns on family income, poverty and job access · #549 of 701 in Michigan.
Walkability A: more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns · #53 of 701 in Michigan.
Family incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 19 minutes each way (Michigan 24, U.S. 26). About one in three work in Kalamazoo; the top destination outside it is Portage (12%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo is where the jobs are
Kalamazoo has 43,823 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Most Kalamazoo residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
A young workforce
31% of Kalamazoo’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Kalamazoo are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2021, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; 2021 is the newest year Michigan has published.
What’s behind Kalamazoo’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Kalamazoo is better than 30% of U.S. towns, #549 of 701 in Michigan. Job access by car holds Kalamazoo’s grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($65,136, U.S. $99,999).
22% of Kalamazoo’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (17% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 19.2%, against 24.9% for all residents. Unemployment (6.9%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($65,136), since student households pull the household median down ($52,272).
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Kalamazoo could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Kalamazoo fills up on a workday
On a workday 17,698 residents head out to work, 8,625 work right here, and 35,198 people come in from elsewhere.
About 90,000 people are in Kalamazoo on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.7 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 2021, primary jobs.
Half of Kalamazoo commutes less than 5 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 17% 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 2021.
What the 43,823 jobs in Kalamazoo are
43,823 jobs are based in Kalamazoo. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Kalamazoo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kalamazoo, 2011 → 2021: 48,370 → 43,823. 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 2021.
About 19 minutes each way, quicker than most of Michigan
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kalamazoo workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 32,769 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Where Kalamazoo’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Kalamazoo clocks in
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Kalamazoo 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, Kalamazoo is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #53 of 701 in Michigan. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 36,345 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). 12.7% of Kalamazoo households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Kalamazoo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kalamazoo is 523rd of 599 U.S. towns of 51,000 to 98,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Kalamazoo, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Rochester Hills MI | 77,539 | $121K | 5.2% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Troy MI | 88,733 | $120K | 5.4% | 4.4% | 20% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | Royal Oak MI | 57,583 | $101K | 6.2% | 3.5% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 521 | Dothan AL | 72,060 | $56K | 19.3% | 4.3% | 58% | C |
| 522 | Perth Amboy NJ | 56,739 | $62K | 20.2% | 14.3% | 14% | C |
| 523 | Kalamazoo MI | 72,683 | $52K | 24.9% | 6.9% | 33% | C |
| 524 | Dearborn Heights MI | 60,664 | $60K | 21.9% | 7.9% | 6% | C |
| 525 | Daytona Beach FL | 88,471 | $52K | 20.4% | 4.7% | 29% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 599 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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.
24% of Kalamazoo works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Portage (12%). Darker towns draw more of Kalamazoo’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kalamazoo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalamazoo | – | C | A | 19 min | $52,272 |
| Kalamazoo Township | 4% | C+ | C+ | 21 min | $58,349 |
| Portage | 12% | B+ | B− | 20 min | $83,212 |
| Eastwood | under 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Oshtemo Township | 5% | C | B | 22 min | $58,020 |
| Westwood | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Comstock Township | 3% | B+ | C+ | 22 min | $76,376 |
| Parchment | under 2% | B− | A | 20 min | $72,798 |
| Comstock Northwest | under 2% | — | — | 19 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Eastwood, Westwood and Comstock Northwest: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. 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 2021, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Students. 22% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Kalamazoo: questions
What is the median household income in Kalamazoo?
$52,272 (±$2,904) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kalamazoo?
24.9% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 19.2%. Michigan: 13.2%.
How long is the commute from Kalamazoo?
19 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kalamazoo work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portage (12%, 5 mi), Oshtemo Township (5%, 6 mi), Kalamazoo Township (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Kalamazoo walkable?
Kalamazoo is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kalamazoo without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kalamazoo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kalamazoo
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.