Cedar City Railroad Depot · Photo: JunesongPRVSN · CC BY-SA 4.0Families in Cedar City earn less than those in 70% of U.S. towns
More than half work in Cedar City; the top destination outside it is St. George (10%, 50 miles). Not counting college students, poverty touches 13.5% of residents, where Utah as a whole has 7.5%. For jobs and income Cedar City is better than 22% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Cedar City apart on work
Cedar City’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cedar City is St. George, 50 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (1,642) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Cedar City are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 22 across Utah. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Utah worker. Time on the road ↓
Most jobs in Cedar City go to people who live here
Of the 17,679 jobs based in Cedar City, 46% are held by Cedar City residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
34% of Cedar City’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Cedar City has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cedar City went from 11,444 in 2013 to 17,679 in 2023, +54%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Cedar City’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cedar City’s grade.
16% of Cedar City’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (15% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.5%, against 18.9% for all residents. Unemployment (4.0%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($77,976), since student households pull the household median down ($63,589).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Cedar City could be anywhere from D to C.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cedar City
About 24% 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.
About 13 minutes each way for Cedar City’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cedar City workers work from home, vs 18% across Utah. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 16,360 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Utah: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How a workday changes Cedar City
On a workday 7,767 residents head out to work, 8,095 work right here, and 9,584 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 (1.11 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.
The 17,679 jobs based in Cedar City
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cedar City, 2013 → 2023: 11,444 → 17,679. 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 Cedar City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that employ Cedar City’s residents
Where Cedar City clocks in
10% of workers
3% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Cedar City
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 18,327 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.3% of Cedar City households have no vehicle (Utah 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Cedar City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cedar City and other U.S. towns of 29,000 to 57,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Holladay UT | 31,162 | $117K | 4.1% | 2.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Syracuse UT | 39,909 | $133K | 4.8% | 1.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Kaysville UT | 33,307 | $133K | 3.4% | 2.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 966 | Texarkana TX | 36,195 | $51K | 22.0% | 5.2% | 43% | C− |
| 967 | Walla Walla WA | 34,058 | $67K | 14.3% | 7.7% | 54% | C− |
| 968 | Cedar City UT | 41,871 | $64K | 18.9% | 4.0% | 51% | C− |
| 969 | Holyoke MA | 38,023 | $54K | 27.0% | 7.7% | 24% | C− |
| 970 | Delano CA | 52,334 | $67K | 16.0% | 13.9% | 29% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,054 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Cedar City, the top three, the last and three more from Utah.
How Cedar City compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Enoch (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cedar City workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar City | – | C− | A− | 13 min | $63,589 |
| Enoch | 2% | B | C+ | 24 min | $80,750 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cedar City’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Students. 16% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cedar City: questions
What is the median household income in Cedar City?
$63,589 (±$4,196) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,166 across Utah and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cedar City?
18.9% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.5%. Utah: 8.5%.
How long is the commute from Cedar City?
13 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Utah and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cedar City work?
51% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. George (10%, 50 mi), Provo (3%, 193 mi), Salt Lake City (2%, 223 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cedar City walkable?
Cedar City is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cedar City without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cedar City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cedar City
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.