Photo: Jo Levine · CC BY 2.0Vale has lower household incomes than 87% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 19.6 in Portland. Poverty touches 16.4% of residents; Oregon has 11.9%. The two grades for Vale are D for jobs and income and A+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Vale in brief
Few Vale workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 19% across Oregon. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Vale are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 23 across Oregon. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Oregon 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 701 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Vale earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Vale is better than 6% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Vale’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.8%) is left out: Vale’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, Vale could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Vale’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vale workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 888 commuters (the 3% 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 daily flow of workers through Vale
On a workday 505 residents head out to work, 196 work right here, and 703 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Vale 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.
21% of working residents work in Ontario
Where Vale clocks in
21% of workers
3% 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.
What Vale’s employers do
899 jobs are based in Vale.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vale, 2013 → 2023: 841 → 899. 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 Vale’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Vale
About 21% 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.
Vale is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vale is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Vale 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 915 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 83% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 83% 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). 14.1% of Vale households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Vale’s commuters take a bus or train.
Vale and other U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 214 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 257 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,278 | Cass City MI | 2,487 | $53K | 21.2% | 5.4% | 22% | D |
| 5,279 | Granby MO | 2,113 | $49K | 25.6% | 13.7% | 4% | D |
| 5,280 | Vale OR | 2,055 | $50K | 16.4% | 4.8% | 28% | D |
| 5,281 | La Pine OR | 2,563 | $58K | 19.2% | 5.1% | 9% | D |
| 5,282 | Cowan TN | 1,799 | $46K | 30.8% | 10.5% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | 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 Vale, 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 Vale: questions
What is the median household income in Vale?
$50,313 (±$10,244) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vale?
16.4%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vale?
18 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vale work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ontario (21%, 14 mi), Nyssa (3%, 14 mi), Fruitland (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Vale walkable?
Vale is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 12.4 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vale without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 83% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vale, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vale
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.