Brooks Hotel · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs, pay and the trip to work in Corvallis
The average commute takes 43 minutes each way (Montana 19, U.S. 26). Corvallis grades C for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Only 5% work in Corvallis itself; outside it, Hamilton draws the most (31%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Corvallis at work: what stands out
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Corvallis’ working residents have a job less than 5 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 43 minutes, longer than the Montana average of 19. Time on the road ↓
31% of Corvallis works in Hamilton
136 working residents, 31%, have their main job in Hamilton, 4.8 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Corvallis itself. The commute map ↓
Most Corvallis residents work close to home
62% 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 439 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Corvallis’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Corvallis is better than 29% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Corvallis’ grade up ($78,103, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.3%) is left out: Corvallis’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, Corvallis could be anywhere from D− to B+.
Corvallis’ commute takes about 43 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Corvallis workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 592 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Montana: 81% 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.
Out of Corvallis to work: where people go
Where Corvallis clocks in
31% of workers
10% 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.
Half of Corvallis commutes less than 5 miles
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily commute in and out of Corvallis
On a workday 415 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 357 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 (0.87 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Corvallis
381 jobs are based in Corvallis.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Corvallis, 2013 → 2023: 429 → 381. 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 Corvallis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Corvallis is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Corvallis is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 683 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). 0.0% of Corvallis households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Corvallis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Corvallis next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700: 2,794th of 4,866 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 518 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 614 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,178 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,792 | Vanport Township PA | 1,260 | $41K | 16.9% | 3.8% | 5% | C |
| 2,793 | Wausaukee WI | 1,138 | $69K | 7.5% | 3.7% | 4% | C |
| 2,794 | Corvallis MT | 1,227 | $78K | 12.9% | 4.3% | 5% | C |
| 2,795 | Netarts OR | 1,022 | $80K | 9.8% | 0.0% | 3% | C |
| 2,796 | Adams NY | 1,636 | $64K | 8.9% | 1.6% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Corvallis, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
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 Corvallis: questions
What is the median household income in Corvallis?
$78,103 (±$30,703) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Corvallis?
12.9%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Corvallis?
43 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Corvallis work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hamilton (31%, 5 mi), Missoula (10%, 39 mi), Billings (3%, 269 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Corvallis walkable?
Corvallis is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Corvallis without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Corvallis, from the people who make the trip.
More of Corvallis
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.