Photo: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives · CC BY 4.0Most of Elgin commutes out: there are 0.3 jobs for every working resident
Elgin grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. There are 165 jobs in Elgin; 586 of its residents have a job. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 0.3 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 19.6 in Portland.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Elgin at work: what stands out
The figures behind Elgin’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Elgin is better than 15% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Elgin’s grade up (10.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Elgin’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, Elgin could be anywhere from D to C.
Getting to work from Elgin takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Elgin workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 690 commuters (the 2% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Elgin
On a workday 535 residents head out to work, 51 work right here, and 114 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Elgin 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 2023, primary jobs.
23% of working residents work in La Grande
Where Elgin clocks in
23% of workers
4% 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 Elgin’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Elgin, 2013 → 2023: 202 → 165. 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 Elgin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Elgin
About 29% 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.
Elgin 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, Elgin is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.4% across Oregon.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 703 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all 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). 4.0% of Elgin households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Elgin’s commuters take a bus or train.
4,406th of 5,760: where Elgin ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 197 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 232 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,404 | Benld IL | 1,403 | $48K | 15.4% | 7.0% | 1% | C− |
| 4,405 | Camden OH | 1,984 | $49K | 23.7% | 3.4% | 8% | C− |
| 4,406 | Elgin OR | 1,689 | $58K | 10.4% | 1.5% | 9% | C− |
| 4,407 | South Fulton TN | 2,158 | $44K | 29.2% | 3.2% | 5% | C− |
| 4,408 | Muscoda WI | 1,304 | $56K | 12.5% | 4.6% | 10% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Elgin, 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 Elgin: questions
What is the median household income in Elgin?
$57,750 (±$15,463) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Elgin?
10.4%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Elgin?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Elgin work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are La Grande (23%, 18 mi), Pendleton (4%, 44 mi), Portland (3%, 229 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Elgin walkable?
Elgin is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Elgin without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Elgin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Elgin
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.