Martin and Carrie Hill House · Photo: Ian Poellet · CC BY-SA 3.0At 9.7%, unemployment in Odell is higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Odell are B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. For 5% of workers, the job is at home, where Oregon as a whole has 19%. About one in ten stay in Odell for work; outside it, Hood River is the main destination (25%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Odell apart on work
Most Odell residents work close to home
72% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Odell makes and builds things
52% of the jobs based in Odell are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Odell residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 41%. The jobs ↓
Odell and Hood River trade workers both ways
Hood River is the top workplace for Odell residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Odell come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
How Odell earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Odell is better than 46% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Odell’s grade up (4.5%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Odell could be anywhere from C− to A.
The commute from Odell, by distance
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.
Odell makes things: 52% of its jobs are in goods
792 jobs are based in Odell.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Odell, 2013 → 2023: 665 → 792. 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 Odell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Odell goes to work
Where Odell clocks in
25% of workers
3% 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 daily commute in and out of Odell
On a workday 972 residents head out to work, 127 work right here, and 665 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Odell on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.72 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.
How long Odell spends getting to work: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Odell workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,004 commuters (the 5% 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.
Driving is how Odell gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Odell is more walkable than 36% 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 1,059 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 78% 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 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% 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 Odell households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Odell’s commuters take a bus or train.
Odell places 2,388th of 5,102 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 193 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 237 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,386 | Prairie Creek AR | 2,493 | $93K | 11.6% | 8.0% | 4% | B− |
| 2,387 | Graton CA | 1,806 | $91K | 24.3% | 5.7% | 5% | B− |
| 2,388 | Odell OR | 2,218 | $97K | 4.5% | 9.7% | 12% | B− |
| 2,389 | Shadeland IN | 1,841 | $83K | 15.0% | 2.2% | 2% | B− |
| 2,390 | Navassa NC | 1,889 | $62K | 9.2% | 2.1% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Odell, 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 Odell: questions
What is the median household income in Odell?
$97,250 (±$32,206) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Odell?
4.5%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Odell?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Odell work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hood River (25%, 5 mi), Portland (4%, 54 mi), The Dalles (3%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Odell walkable?
Odell is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Odell 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 Odell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Odell
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.