Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Athena works elsewhere
Only 6% work in Athena itself; outside it, Pendleton draws the most (19%, 18 miles). 200 jobs are based in Athena for 443 working residents. Athena grades C for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Athena
On income, poverty and job access, Athena is better than 30% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Athena’s grade up (9.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.0%) is left out: Athena’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, Athena could be anywhere from D to B.
The workday shuffle in and out of Athena
On a workday 417 residents head out to work, 26 work right here, and 174 people come in from elsewhere.
About 940 people are in Athena on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer 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.
The places Athena commutes to
Where Athena clocks in
19% of workers
13% 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.
What Athena’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Athena, 2013 → 2023: 187 → 200. 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 Athena’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Athena, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Athena workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 547 commuters (the 17% who work from home are left out). Across Oregon: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Athena’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Most trips from Athena start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Athena is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Athena 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 660 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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 Athena households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Athena’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,429th of 4,312: where Athena ranks among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Coburg OR | 1,373 | $98K | 1.5% | 8.9% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Aurora OR | 1,113 | $108K | 6.1% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,427 | Kenbridge VA | 1,103 | $62K | 7.5% | 0.7% | 11% | C |
| 2,428 | New Vienna OH | 1,106 | $61K | 8.8% | 2.1% | 1% | C |
| 2,429 | Athena OR | 1,187 | $72K | 9.0% | 1.0% | 6% | C |
| 2,430 | Mercersburg PA | 1,492 | $66K | 10.4% | 4.8% | 9% | C |
| 2,431 | Luck WI | 1,063 | $69K | 9.9% | 2.8% | 11% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Athena, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
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 Athena: questions
What is the median household income in Athena?
$71,898 (±$11,351) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Athena?
9.0%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Athena?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Athena work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pendleton (19%, 18 mi), Walla Walla (13%, 19 mi), Milton-Freewater (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Athena walkable?
Athena is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Athena without a car?
0% 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 Athena, from the people who make the trip.
More of Athena
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.