Photo: Creator: Javin Weaver · CC BY-SA 3.0Provo is a college town: 38% of residents are students
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 7.6 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 14.8 in Salt Lake City. The two grades for Provo are B− for jobs and income and A+ for walkability. Family incomes here are lower than in 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Provo apart on work
A young workforce
42% of Provo’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Provo is where the jobs are
Provo has 58,445 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Provo and Orem trade workers both ways
Orem is the top workplace for Provo residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Provo come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Provo residents work close to home
60% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. Only 8% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind Provo’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Provo is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #97 of 119 in Utah. Job access by car holds Provo’s grade up (ahead of 80% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($73,450, U.S. $99,999).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (33% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 12.7%, against 23.0% for all residents. Unemployment (5.1%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($73,450), since student households pull the household median down ($64,171).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Provo could be anywhere from C+ to B−.
The kinds of work in Provo
58,445 jobs are based in Provo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Provo, 2013 → 2023: 48,197 → 58,445. 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 Provo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Provo, and who commutes in
On a workday 27,108 residents head out to work, 11,788 work right here, and 46,657 people come in from elsewhere.
About 134,000 people are in Provo on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Who travels to work in Provo, and from where
Where Provo clocks in
15% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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 commute from Provo, by distance
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 to work from Provo takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Provo workers work from home, vs 18% across Utah. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 53,673 commuters (the 16% 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.
Provo is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Provo is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns, #2 of 119 in Utah. Both inputs place Provo 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 63,994 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, 24% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 7.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 90% 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). 4.7% of Provo households have no vehicle (Utah 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Provo’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
How Provo ranks: 255th of 368 U.S. towns of 80,000 to 155,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Sandy UT | 92,386 | $112K | 5.5% | 2.6% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Lehi UT | 95,313 | $131K | 5.0% | 4.0% | 17% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 253 | Lakeland FL | 125,520 | $64K | 13.2% | 4.5% | 32% | B− |
| 254 | Visalia CA | 146,541 | $82K | 11.5% | 6.9% | 44% | B− |
| 255 | Provo UT | 114,527 | $64K | 23.0% | 5.1% | 30% | B− |
| 256 | Davenport IA | 100,358 | $66K | 15.2% | 4.6% | 47% | B− |
| 257 | Asheville NC | 93,523 | $71K | 14.3% | 5.1% | 52% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 368 | Lawton OK | 90,503 | $54K | 21.1% | 8.1% | 55% | 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 Provo, the top three, the last and three more from Utah.
Work next door: 19% of Provo’s workers
The biggest share goes to Orem (15%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Provo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provo | – | B− | A+ | 18 min | $64,171 |
| Orem | 15% | B+ | A | 20 min | $83,342 |
| Springville | 4% | A− | B+ | 23 min | $89,816 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Provo’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. 38% 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 Provo: questions
What is the median household income in Provo?
$64,171 (±$2,463) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,166 across Utah and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Provo?
23.0% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 12.7%. Utah: 8.5%.
How long is the commute from Provo?
18 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Utah and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Provo work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Orem (15%, 5 mi), Salt Lake City (6%, 40 mi), Lehi (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Provo walkable?
Provo is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 20% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Provo without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 24% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Provo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Provo
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.