Photo: SounderBruce · CC BY-SA 4.0More people are out of work in Prineville (9.4%) than in 93% of U.S. towns
For 10% of workers, the job is at home; Oregon has 19%. Prineville grades D for jobs and income and A for walkability. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 5.2 in Bend.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Prineville in brief
Prineville trades workers with the towns around it
Prineville has about as many jobs (5,274) as working residents (4,744), but they are mostly different people: 3,348 residents leave for work each day while 3,878 people come in. Only 26% of the jobs in Prineville are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Prineville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Prineville is Bend, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (809) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Prineville’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prineville is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #120 of 142 in Oregon. Household income holds Prineville’s grade up ($72,980, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prineville could be anywhere from D to C.
Who works in Prineville, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,348 residents head out to work, 1,396 work right here, and 3,878 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 (1.11 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
How far Prineville’s workers travel
About 28% 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.
17% of working residents work in Bend
Where Prineville clocks in
17% 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.
67% of the jobs in Prineville pay over $3,333 a month
5,274 jobs are based in Prineville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prineville, 2014 → 2024: 4,478 → 5,274. 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 Prineville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Prineville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prineville workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,287 commuters (the 10% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Prineville
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prineville is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns, #67 of 142 in Oregon. Both inputs place Prineville 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 4,774 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 40% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 7% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 51% 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). 9.0% of Prineville households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Prineville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Prineville sits among U.S. towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 171 | Bull Mountain OR | 9,865 | $165K | 4.7% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Oak Hills OR | 11,131 | $127K | 3.4% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 413 | Damascus OR | 11,437 | $123K | 3.2% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,455 | Pulaski VA | 8,807 | $49K | 21.2% | 5.2% | 18% | D |
| 2,456 | Potsdam NY | 14,367 | $53K | 20.4% | 4.5% | 37% | D |
| 2,457 | Prineville OR | 11,994 | $73K | 16.2% | 9.4% | 29% | D |
| 2,458 | Hondo TX | 9,130 | $62K | 17.0% | 7.1% | 20% | D |
| 2,459 | Farmington ME | 8,258 | $54K | 15.4% | 5.2% | 29% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 19% | 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 Prineville, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
Prineville and the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prineville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prineville | – | D | A | 24 min | $72,980 |
| Juniper Canyon | under 1% | B | D | 35 min | $84,861 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prineville’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Prineville: questions
What is the median household income in Prineville?
$72,980 (±$5,115) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prineville?
16.2%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prineville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prineville work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bend (17%, 28 mi), Redmond (12%, 16 mi), Portland (6%, 122 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Prineville walkable?
Prineville is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prineville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 7% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prineville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prineville
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.