Photo: 46percent · Public domainBrownsville has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
At home: 7% of workers have no commute at all (Oregon 19%). Brownsville has 253 jobs for 735 working residents. Jobs and income earn Brownsville B−; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Brownsville, in a few figures
Brownsville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Brownsville is Eugene, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (90) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Brownsville workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 28 minutes each way, against 23 across Oregon. Over a year that’s about 215 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 735 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Brownsville’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brownsville is better than 48% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Brownsville’s grade up ($83,098, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Brownsville’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, Brownsville could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Miles to work from Brownsville
About 20% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 28 minutes each way for Brownsville’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brownsville workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 826 commuters (the 7% 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.
A workday in Brownsville: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 708 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 226 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Brownsville on a workday afternoon, 25% 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 2024, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Eugene
Where Brownsville clocks in
12% of workers
10% 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.
34% of the jobs in Brownsville make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brownsville, 2014 → 2024: 247 → 253. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Brownsville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Brownsville, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brownsville is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Brownsville 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 889 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 0.5% of Brownsville households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brownsville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brownsville is 2,428th of 5,921 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 212 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 251 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,426 | Alum Creek WV | 1,749 | $74K | 11.0% | 12.9% | 1% | B− |
| 2,427 | Greentown IN | 2,366 | $61K | 7.0% | 2.3% | 9% | B− |
| 2,428 | Brownsville OR | 1,904 | $83K | 10.0% | 1.1% | 4% | B− |
| 2,429 | Woodcreek TX | 1,876 | $74K | 4.1% | 21.3% | 1% | B− |
| 2,430 | Pentwater Township MI | 1,671 | $88K | 7.9% | 3.4% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Brownsville, 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 2024, 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 Brownsville: questions
What is the median household income in Brownsville?
$83,098 (±$3,775) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brownsville?
10.0%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brownsville?
28 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brownsville work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eugene (12%, 24 mi), Albany (10%, 17 mi), Corvallis (7%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Brownsville walkable?
Brownsville is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brownsville 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 Brownsville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brownsville
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.