With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Saunders Lake works elsewhere
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers; Oregon has 19%. 108 jobs are based in Saunders Lake, against 307 working residents. The two grades for Saunders Lake are D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Saunders Lake apart
29% of Saunders Lake works in Coos Bay
88 working residents, 29%, have their main job in Coos Bay, 9.6 miles away. That’s 15 times as many as work in Saunders Lake itself. The commute map ↓
Saunders Lake workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 30 minutes each way, against 23 across Oregon. Over a year that’s about 230 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 307 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Saunders Lake’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Saunders Lake is better than 9% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Saunders Lake’s grade up ($63,914, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Saunders Lake’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Saunders Lake could be anywhere from D− to B−.
29% of working residents work in Coos Bay
Where Saunders Lake clocks in
29% of workers
18% of workers
2% 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 trip to work from Saunders Lake: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Saunders Lake workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 396 commuters (the 5% 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.
Who leaves Saunders Lake for work, and who comes in
On a workday 301 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 102 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Saunders Lake on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
In Saunders Lake, 28% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Saunders Lake, 2013 → 2023: 52 → 108. 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 Saunders Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Saunders Lake to work
About 27% 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 Saunders Lake, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Saunders Lake is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 415 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 63% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 3.4% of Saunders Lake households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Saunders Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Saunders Lake next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800: 4,528th of 5,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 190 | Coburg OR | 1,373 | $98K | 1.5% | 8.9% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 295 | Aurora OR | 1,113 | $108K | 6.1% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,526 | Dreher Township PA | 1,373 | $52K | 24.8% | 5.0% | 2% | D |
| 4,527 | Morgantown MS | 1,038 | $52K | 19.2% | 5.6% | 0% | D |
| 4,528 | Saunders Lake OR | 1,338 | $64K | 18.1% | 0.0% | 2% | D |
| 4,529 | Newell WV | 1,246 | $60K | 25.8% | 18.2% | 3% | D |
| 4,530 | Hampton AR | 1,145 | $46K | 13.1% | 6.3% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Saunders Lake, 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 Saunders Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Saunders Lake?
$63,914 (±$33,744) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Saunders Lake?
18.1%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Saunders Lake?
30 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Saunders Lake work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Coos Bay (29%, 10 mi), North Bend (18%, 8 mi), Grants Pass (2%, 87 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Saunders Lake walkable?
Saunders Lake is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Saunders Lake without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Saunders Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Saunders Lake
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.