Charles and Elizabeth Hatch House · Photo: Ian Poellet · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Rogue River have lower incomes than those in 82% of U.S. towns
12.6% of residents are in poverty, next to 11.9% for Oregon as a whole. For jobs and income Rogue River is better than 20% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B−). Working from home is the commute for 11% of workers, next to 19% for Oregon as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rogue River
The poverty rate holds Rogue River’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($54,537, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (10.2%) is left out: Rogue River’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, Rogue River could be anywhere from D to C.
Rogue River on a workday afternoon
On a workday 759 residents head out to work, 69 work right here, and 707 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 (0.94 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.
27% of working residents work in Medford
Where Rogue River clocks in
27% of workers
25% 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 776 jobs based in Rogue River
776 jobs are based in Rogue River.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rogue River, 2013 → 2023: 610 → 776. 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 Rogue River’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Rogue River
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rogue River workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 659 commuters (the 11% 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.
The commute from Rogue River, by distance
About 16% 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 Rogue River: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.4% across Oregon, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 740 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 1.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 57% 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). 11.7% of Rogue River households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rogue River’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Rogue River is 3,981st among 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 202 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 247 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,979 | Bon Secour AL | 2,789 | $61K | 17.7% | 5.0% | 1% | C− |
| 3,980 | Big Timber MT | 1,686 | $67K | 10.4% | 3.7% | 35% | C− |
| 3,981 | Rogue River OR | 2,293 | $55K | 12.6% | 10.2% | 8% | C− |
| 3,982 | Salem NC | 2,377 | $69K | 19.1% | 7.1% | 1% | C− |
| 3,983 | Gloverville SC | 2,505 | $52K | 15.6% | 8.3% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | 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 Rogue River, 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 Rogue River: questions
What is the median household income in Rogue River?
$54,537 (±$9,327) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rogue River?
12.6%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rogue River?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rogue River work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Medford (27%, 18 mi), Grants Pass (25%, 8 mi), Central Point (3%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rogue River walkable?
Rogue River is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rogue River without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rogue River, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rogue River
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.