College Hill West Historic District (Additional Documentation) · Photo: Ian Poellet · CC BY-SA 3.032% of Corvallis’ residents are college students
Jobs & income B: better than 60% of U.S. towns on family income, poverty and job access · #52 of 142 in Oregon.
Walkability A+: among the most walkable U.S. towns · #3 of 142 in Oregon.
Family incomes here are higher than in 75% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 16 minutes each way (Oregon 23, U.S. 26). About half work in Corvallis; the top destination outside it is Albany (7%, 10 miles).
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 5.6 transit trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 19.6 in Portland (EPA, 2020 schedules).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Corvallis
What’s behind Corvallis’ Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Corvallis is better than 60% of U.S. towns, #52 of 142 in Oregon. Family income holds Corvallis’ grade up ($116,107, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (12.9%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on job access by car.
32% of Corvallis’ 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 (24% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 12.9%, against 24.3% for all residents. Unemployment (8.4%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($116,107), since student households pull the household median down ($65,012).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Corvallis could be anywhere from B− to B+.
About 16 minutes each way, quicker than most of Oregon
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Corvallis workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 23,680 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Oregon: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Corvallis fills up on a workday
On a workday 11,779 residents head out to work, 9,976 work right here, and 19,112 people come in from elsewhere.
About 69,000 people are in Corvallis on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 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.
7% of working residents work in Albany
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Corvallis clocks in
7% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
65% of the jobs in Corvallis pay over $3,333 a month
29,088 jobs are based in Corvallis. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Corvallis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Corvallis, 2013 → 2023: 27,006 → 29,088. 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.
Half of Corvallis 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 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 2023.
Corvallis 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, Corvallis is among the most walkable U.S. towns, #3 of 142 in Oregon. Both inputs place Corvallis 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 29,185 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 94% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 76% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 5.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 86% 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). 9.7% of Corvallis households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Corvallis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Corvallis is 422nd of 720 U.S. towns of 43,000 to 83,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Corvallis, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 229 | Tigard OR | 57,929 | $109K | 6.7% | 4.7% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 269 | Aloha OR | 52,389 | $102K | 7.8% | 4.2% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 420 | Avon Township IL | 63,208 | $98K | 10.5% | 6.9% | 10% | B |
| 421 | Gardena CA | 58,460 | $85K | 11.8% | 6.1% | 6% | B |
| 422 | Corvallis OR | 61,499 | $65K | 24.3% | 8.4% | 46% | B |
| 423 | Cheyenne WY | 66,507 | $79K | 8.7% | 3.7% | 70% | B |
| 424 | Azusa CA | 47,447 | $91K | 13.2% | 6.1% | 7% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 562 | Springfield OR | 61,431 | $69K | 14.9% | 5.1% | 26% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 720 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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.
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.
- Students. 32% 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 Corvallis: questions
What is the median household income in Corvallis?
$65,012 (±$3,017) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Corvallis?
24.3% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 12.9%. Oregon: 11.9%.
How long is the commute from Corvallis?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Corvallis work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albany (7%, 10 mi), Salem (5%, 28 mi), Portland (5%, 74 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Corvallis walkable?
Corvallis is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 13.9 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Corvallis without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 76% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
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.