Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Cottage Grove (6.0%) than in 74% of U.S. towns
Cottage Grove grades C+ for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. 10% of workers work from home; Oregon has 19%. About one in seven stay in Cottage Grove for work; outside it, Eugene is the main destination (27%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Cottage Grove apart
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Cottage Grove
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cottage Grove is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #88 of 142 in Oregon. Household income holds Cottage Grove’s grade up ($80,875, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cottage Grove could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Where Cottage Grove goes to work
Where Cottage Grove clocks in
27% of workers
11% 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.
Cottage Grove on a workday afternoon
On a workday 3,522 residents head out to work, 704 work right here, and 2,308 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,600 people are in Cottage Grove on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.71 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The 3,012 jobs based in Cottage Grove
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cottage Grove, 2014 → 2024: 2,713 → 3,012. 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 Cottage Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 20 minutes from Cottage Grove
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cottage Grove workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,738 commuters (the 10% 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.
Half of Cottage Grove commutes less than 19 miles
About 25% 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.
In Cottage Grove, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cottage Grove is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns, #24 of 142 in Oregon. Both inputs place Cottage Grove 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 5,247 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 91% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 26% 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). 8.3% of Cottage Grove households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Cottage Grove’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Cottage Grove ranks: 1,761st of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Bull Mountain OR | 9,865 | $165K | 4.7% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Oak Hills OR | 11,131 | $127K | 3.4% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 380 | Damascus OR | 11,437 | $123K | 3.2% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,759 | West Athens CA | 8,726 | $67K | 15.3% | 10.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,760 | Burley ID | 12,409 | $67K | 15.3% | 2.8% | 35% | C+ |
| 1,761 | Cottage Grove OR | 10,851 | $81K | 10.7% | 6.0% | 17% | C+ |
| 1,762 | Spearfish SD | 14,154 | $66K | 15.2% | 2.2% | 44% | C+ |
| 1,763 | Mount Pleasant Township PA | 9,962 | $68K | 13.3% | 5.3% | 9% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 19% | 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 Cottage Grove, 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 Cottage Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Cottage Grove?
$80,875 (±$11,657) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cottage Grove?
10.7%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cottage Grove?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cottage Grove work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eugene (27%, 18 mi), Springfield (11%, 18 mi), Portland (3%, 122 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Cottage Grove walkable?
Cottage Grove is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 13.2 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cottage Grove without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 26% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cottage Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cottage Grove
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.