Photo: Mt. Hood Territory · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in Sandy top those of 83% of U.S. towns
7.8% of residents are in poverty, against 11.9% across Oregon. Jobs and income earn Sandy B; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in ten work in Sandy itself; outside it, Portland draws the most (27%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sandy: the figures worth knowing
Where Sandy’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sandy is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #58 of 142 in Oregon. Household income holds Sandy’s grade up ($108,984, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (6.0%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sandy could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
The kinds of work in Sandy
3,670 jobs are based in Sandy.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sandy, 2013 → 2023: 2,845 → 3,670. 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 Sandy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Sandy
On a workday 5,636 residents head out to work, 683 work right here, and 2,987 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Sandy on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Out of Sandy to work: where people go
Where Sandy clocks in
10% 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.
Commuting from Sandy: about 26 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sandy workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,438 commuters (the 15% 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 distance from Sandy to work
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.
The commute in Sandy is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sandy is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns, #118 of 142 in Oregon. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.9% of 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 6,378 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 95% 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 4.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 82% 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). 3.7% of Sandy households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Sandy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sandy places 1,378th of 2,526 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | 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 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 160 | Bull Mountain OR | 9,865 | $165K | 4.7% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 194 | Oak Hills OR | 11,131 | $127K | 3.4% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 389 | Damascus OR | 11,437 | $123K | 3.2% | 3.6% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,376 | Amelia OH | 12,871 | $71K | 13.0% | 2.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,377 | Heartland TX | 10,607 | $93K | 9.2% | 11.5% | <1% | B |
| 1,378 | Sandy OR | 13,323 | $109K | 7.8% | 6.0% | 11% | B |
| 1,379 | Springfield Township OH | 11,124 | $81K | 6.3% | 5.3% | 14% | B |
| 1,380 | Buffalo MN | 16,878 | $89K | 8.9% | 6.0% | 21% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,526 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Sandy, 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 Sandy: questions
What is the median household income in Sandy?
$108,984 (±$18,920) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sandy?
7.8%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sandy?
26 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sandy work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Portland (27%, 21 mi), Gresham (10%, 11 mi), Salem (3%, 49 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sandy walkable?
Sandy is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sandy 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 Sandy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sandy
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.