Photo: Julius Reque of Traveling12feet · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Birch Bay commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Employers in Birch Bay report 642 jobs, and 4,060 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Birch Bay is better than 52% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (C−). Only 4% work in Birch Bay itself; outside it, Bellingham draws the most (26%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Birch Bay and work: the main findings
Birch Bay is a place people come home to
There are 642 jobs based in Birch Bay, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Birch Bay has about 7,400 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Birch Bay and Bellingham trade workers both ways
Bellingham is the top workplace for Birch Bay residents (26%) and also where the most people who work in Birch Bay come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Birch Bay earns its Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Birch Bay’s grade up ($86,854, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Birch Bay could be anywhere from C to A−.
Who leaves Birch Bay for work, and who comes in
On a workday 3,909 residents head out to work, 151 work right here, and 491 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,400 people are in Birch Bay on a workday afternoon, 32% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Where Birch Bay’s working residents head each day
Where Birch Bay clocks in
26% of workers
9% of workers
8% 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 kinds of work in Birch Bay
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Birch Bay, 2014 → 2024: 481 → 642. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Birch Bay’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way for Birch Bay’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Birch Bay workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,863 commuters (the 15% who work from home are left out). Across Washington: 79% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Birch Bay’s commute, mile by mile
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most trips from Birch Bay start in a car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,560 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). 4.5% of Birch Bay households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Birch Bay’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Birch Bay is 1,465th of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | 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 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Maltby WA | 10,910 | $185K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Bothell East WA | 14,578 | $199K | 3.6% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 129 | Snoqualmie WA | 13,640 | $214K | 0.8% | 2.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,463 | Two Rivers WI | 11,222 | $57K | 11.8% | 1.7% | 19% | B− |
| 1,464 | Boulder Hill IL | 8,989 | $80K | 8.8% | 10.4% | 1% | B− |
| 1,465 | Birch Bay WA | 10,837 | $87K | 9.4% | 3.7% | 4% | B− |
| 1,466 | North Merritt Island FL | 9,025 | $105K | 6.9% | 7.0% | 4% | B− |
| 1,467 | Whitehouse TX | 9,970 | $99K | 10.9% | 6.4% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 19% | 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 Birch Bay, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
How Birch Bay compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Blaine (9%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Birch Bay’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 2024, 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 Birch Bay: questions
What is the median household income in Birch Bay?
$86,854 (±$9,678) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Birch Bay?
9.4%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Birch Bay?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Birch Bay work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bellingham (26%, 17 mi), Blaine (9%, 4 mi), Ferndale (8%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Birch Bay walkable?
Birch Bay is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Birch Bay without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Birch Bay, from the people who make the trip.
More of Birch Bay
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.