Photo: Tedder · CC BY 3.0At 10.4%, unemployment in Madras is higher than in 95% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 1.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 5.2 in Bend. The two grades for Madras are D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers; Oregon has 19%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Madras apart on work
Madras’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Madras is Bend, 43 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (353) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Madras workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 19% across Oregon. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Madras makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Madras are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Madras residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. The jobs ↓
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.
Why Madras gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Madras is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #134 of 142 in Oregon. Household income holds Madras’ grade up ($64,659, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madras could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Madras
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.
The daily trip from Madras: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madras workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,046 commuters (the 4% 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.
A place that makes things: 35% of Madras’ jobs are in goods
3,647 jobs are based in Madras.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madras, 2013 → 2023: 2,981 → 3,647. 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 Madras’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Madras for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,129 residents head out to work, 1,138 work right here, and 2,509 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.12 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.
11% of working residents work in Bend
Where Madras clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Madras
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madras is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #91 of 142 in Oregon. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.5% 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 3,157 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 58% 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 1.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 63% 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). 8.7% of Madras households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Madras’ commuters take a bus or train.
Madras next to U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 175 | Bull Mountain OR | 9,865 | $165K | 4.7% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 408 | Creswell OR | 5,566 | $100K | 4.3% | 0.8% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 499 | Cedar Hills OR | 8,388 | $106K | 2.3% | 5.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,872 | Magalia CA | 7,389 | $57K | 11.8% | 10.3% | 7% | D |
| 2,873 | DeRidder LA | 9,503 | $60K | 19.1% | 10.1% | 34% | D |
| 2,874 | Madras OR | 7,829 | $65K | 17.7% | 10.4% | 35% | D |
| 2,875 | Doolittle TX | 6,203 | $36K | 55.9% | 16.4% | <1% | D |
| 2,876 | Pocahontas AR | 7,622 | $44K | 23.8% | 5.6% | 36% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,026 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Madras, 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 Madras: questions
What is the median household income in Madras?
$64,659 (±$12,859) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madras?
17.7%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madras?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madras work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bend (11%, 43 mi), Redmond (8%, 28 mi), Portland (6%, 94 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madras walkable?
Madras is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madras without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madras, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madras
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.