Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Drain trail those of 92% of U.S. towns
35.3% of residents are in poverty (Oregon 11.9%). Drain grades D− for jobs and income and B for walkability. 0% of workers have no commute at all, next to 19% for Oregon as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Drain: the gist
Drain’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Drain is Eugene, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (56) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Drain workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 19% across Oregon. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Drain workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 23 across Oregon. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 61 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 358 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Drain gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Drain is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Drain’s grade.
Unemployment (7.1%) is left out: Drain’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, Drain could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How far Drain’s workers travel
About 27% 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.
A commute of about 31 minutes in Drain
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Drain workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 379 commuters (the 0% 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.
Who leaves Drain for work, and who comes in
On a workday 330 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 188 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Drain on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.60 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 2023, primary jobs.
16% of working residents work in Eugene
Where Drain clocks in
16% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
The kinds of work in Drain
216 jobs are based in Drain.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Drain, 2013 → 2023: 234 → 216. 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 Drain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Drain is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Drain is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.4% across Oregon, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 379 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). 2.1% of Drain households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Drain’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Drain compares with 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 4,244 | Sterling Township IN | 1,593 | $41K | 41.3% | 7.5% | 4% | D− |
| 4,245 | Fort Deposit AL | 1,114 | $22K | 47.7% | 15.9% | 8% | D− |
| 4,246 | Drain OR | 1,190 | $46K | 35.3% | 7.1% | 8% | D− |
| 4,247 | Pennington Gap VA | 1,568 | $22K | 56.8% | 22.4% | 11% | D− |
| 4,248 | Bylas AZ | 1,551 | $29K | 46.6% | 27.3% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Drain, 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 Drain: questions
What is the median household income in Drain?
$46,103 (±$14,423) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Drain?
35.3%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Drain?
31 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Drain work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eugene (16%, 29 mi), Roseburg (9%, 30 mi), Cottage Grove (6%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Drain walkable?
Drain is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Drain without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Drain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Drain
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.