Photo: Tedder · CC BY 3.0Most of Falls City commutes out: there are 0.3 jobs for every working resident
Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns. Falls City has 112 jobs for 427 working residents. For jobs and income Falls City is better than 4% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Falls City in brief
Falls City is a place people come home to
There are 112 jobs based in Falls City, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Falls City has about 730 people in it, 30% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Falls City 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 427 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Falls City: the grade in detail
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Falls City’s grade.
Unemployment (7.4%) is left out: Falls City’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, Falls City could be anywhere from D− to C.
How a workday changes Falls City
On a workday 424 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 109 people come in from elsewhere.
About 730 people are in Falls City on a workday afternoon, 30% 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.
The daily trip from Falls City: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Falls City workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 416 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.
15% of working residents work in Salem
Where Falls City clocks in
15% of workers
12% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Falls City, 2014 → 2024: 81 → 112. 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 Falls City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Falls City
About 21% 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.
Few in Falls City walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.4% across Oregon, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 448 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). 13.0% of Falls City households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Falls City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Falls City and other U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Coburg OR | 1,373 | $98K | 1.5% | 8.9% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 145 | Aurora OR | 1,113 | $108K | 6.1% | 2.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 223 | Adair Village OR | 1,010 | $99K | 3.6% | 4.4% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,865 | Mount Gay-Shamrock WV | 1,166 | $52K | 27.5% | 3.5% | 12% | D− |
| 2,866 | Clay City KY | 1,174 | $24K | 39.5% | 5.3% | 3% | D− |
| 2,867 | Falls City OR | 1,042 | $51K | 19.8% | 7.4% | 1% | D− |
| 2,868 | Phillips Township IL | 1,049 | $54K | 21.6% | 1.1% | 2% | D− |
| 2,869 | Richmond Township OH | 1,005 | $56K | 30.0% | 3.2% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Falls City, 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 Falls City: questions
What is the median household income in Falls City?
$51,250 (±$21,983) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Falls City?
19.8%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Falls City?
31 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Falls City work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salem (15%, 21 mi), Grand Ronde (12%, 17 mi), Portland (7%, 60 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Falls City walkable?
Falls City is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Falls City without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Falls City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Falls City
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.