Photo: User:akampfer · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Rainier earn less than those in 63% of U.S. towns
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 1.1 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 19.6 in Portland. Below the poverty line: 18.3% of residents; Oregon has 11.9%. Jobs and income earn Rainier C−; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Rainier: the gist
Rainier’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Rainier is Portland, 39 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (96) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A lot of Rainier workers cross into Washington
29% of Rainier workers work outside Oregon, the Census survey finds. In the commute data, Longview (10%), Kelso (4%) and Vancouver (3%) are among the top workplaces. The commute map ↓
Rainier makes and builds things
52% of the jobs based in Rainier are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Rainier residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. 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 725 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Rainier’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rainier is better than 17% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Rainier’s grade up ($66,989, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (7.5%) is left out: Rainier’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rainier could be anywhere from D to C+.
The commute from Rainier, 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.
13% of working residents work in Portland
Where Rainier clocks in
10% 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.
In Rainier, 52% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
926 jobs are based in Rainier.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rainier, 2013 → 2023: 665 → 926. 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 Rainier’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Rainier by day and by night
On a workday 657 residents head out to work, 68 work right here, and 858 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Rainier on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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.
Time on the road from Rainier: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rainier workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 786 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.
Rainier is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rainier is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rainier 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 875 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 44% 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 1.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 59% 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). 4.5% of Rainier households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Rainier’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600, Rainier ranks 4,439th of 5,921 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 212 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 251 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,437 | Lamoni IA | 2,074 | $55K | 16.6% | 3.7% | 24% | C− |
| 4,438 | Sharpsburg NC | 1,798 | $55K | 19.3% | 0.0% | 1% | C− |
| 4,439 | Rainier OR | 1,924 | $67K | 18.3% | 7.5% | 9% | C− |
| 4,440 | Caldwell Township MI | 1,423 | $54K | 9.0% | 5.8% | 4% | C− |
| 4,441 | Henrietta Township MN | 1,595 | $73K | 15.3% | 4.2% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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 Rainier, 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 Rainier: questions
What is the median household income in Rainier?
$66,989 (±$13,130) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rainier?
18.3%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rainier?
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 Rainier work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portland (13%, 38 mi), Longview (10%, 6 mi), St. Helens (7%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rainier walkable?
Rainier is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rainier without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rainier, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rainier
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.