Hugo Community Baptist Church · Photo: NoeHill · CC BY-SA 3.0Where Merlin earns its living
Working residents average 36 minutes each way (Oregon 23, U.S. 26). The two grades for Merlin are C for jobs and income and D for walkability. Only 3% work in Merlin; the top destination outside it is Grants Pass (34%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Merlin apart
Merlin and Grants Pass trade workers both ways
Grants Pass is the top workplace for Merlin residents (34%) and also where the most people who work in Merlin come from (29% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Merlin’s working residents have a job less than 9 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 36 minutes, longer than the Oregon average of 23. Time on the road ↓
Merlin makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Merlin are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Merlin residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. 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; with 453 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Merlin’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Merlin is better than 33% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Merlin’s grade up (8.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Merlin’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Merlin could be anywhere from D− to B+.
The towns that employ Merlin’s residents
Where Merlin clocks in
34% of workers
12% of workers
2% 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.
Commuting from Merlin: about 36 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Merlin workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 580 commuters (the 20% 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.
Goods, not services: 54% of the jobs in Merlin
360 jobs are based in Merlin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Merlin, 2013 → 2023: 385 → 360. 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 Merlin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Merlin
On a workday 439 residents head out to work, 14 work right here, and 346 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 (0.79 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.
Where in the region Merlin works
About 19% 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.
Getting around Merlin: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Merlin is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 726 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 0.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 48% 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). 0.0% of Merlin households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Merlin’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Merlin ranks: 3,421st of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 241 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,419 | Florence Township OH | 1,925 | $75K | 13.4% | 3.0% | 11% | C |
| 3,420 | Ardmore IN | 1,810 | $47K | 14.6% | 3.7% | <1% | C |
| 3,421 | Merlin OR | 1,617 | $72K | 8.8% | 1.6% | 3% | C |
| 3,422 | Luna Pier MI | 1,351 | $62K | 26.0% | 3.8% | 2% | C |
| 3,423 | Munising MI | 1,938 | $60K | 4.2% | 3.5% | 36% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Merlin, 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 Merlin: questions
What is the median household income in Merlin?
$71,806 (±$39,896) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Merlin?
8.8%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Merlin?
36 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Merlin work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grants Pass (34%, 8 mi), Medford (12%, 32 mi), Roseburg (2%, 49 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Merlin walkable?
Merlin is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Merlin without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Merlin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Merlin
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.