Photo: Finetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Philomath (3.2%) than in 66% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Philomath; the top destination outside it is Corvallis (38%, 4 miles). Philomath grades B+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 1.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 19.6 in Portland.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Philomath
Where Philomath’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Unemployment holds Philomath’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 48% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Philomath could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Where Philomath goes to work
Where Philomath clocks in
6% of workers
5% 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.
A workday in Philomath: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 2,215 residents head out to work, 203 work right here, and 1,189 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,700 people are in Philomath on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.58 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.
What work there is in Philomath: 1,392 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Philomath, 2013 → 2023: 1,074 → 1,392. 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 Philomath’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 23 minutes in Philomath
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Philomath workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,731 commuters (the 12% 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.
Where in the region Philomath works
About 17% 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.
In Philomath, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Philomath is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns, #38 of 142 in Oregon. Both inputs place Philomath near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,111 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 86% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 18% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 64% 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). 2.1% of Philomath households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Philomath’s commuters take a bus or train.
Philomath is 1,325th of 3,476 U.S. towns of 4,000 to 7,700 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 323 | Beavercreek OR | 4,894 | $135K | 4.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 392 | Creswell OR | 5,566 | $100K | 4.3% | 0.8% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 650 | Garden Home-Whitford OR | 6,979 | $98K | 5.9% | 4.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,323 | Belle Isle FL | 7,688 | $105K | 11.6% | 5.5% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,324 | Southampton NY | 4,730 | $214K | 4.8% | 10.0% | 18% | B+ |
| 1,325 | Philomath OR | 5,699 | $84K | 7.2% | 3.2% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,326 | Sewickley Township PA | 5,535 | $75K | 14.2% | 1.4% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,327 | Moores Mill AL | 6,378 | $97K | 11.2% | 3.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,476 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Philomath, 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 Philomath: questions
What is the median household income in Philomath?
$83,672 (±$17,841) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Philomath?
7.2%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Philomath?
23 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Philomath work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Corvallis (38%, 4 mi), Albany (6%, 14 mi), Salem (5%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Philomath walkable?
Philomath is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.9 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Philomath without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 18% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Philomath, from the people who make the trip.
More of Philomath
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.