Photo: Steven Pavlov · CC BY-SA 3.0Chehalis has 1.8 jobs for every working resident: 6,080 people commute in to work
Chehalis grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Employers in Chehalis report 6,686 jobs for 3,646 working residents. For 10% of workers, the job is at home (Washington 20%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Chehalis and work: the main findings
Chehalis is where the jobs are
Chehalis has 6,686 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Chehalis draws workers from far and wide
The 6,686 jobs in Chehalis are filled from a wide area. Chehalis’ own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 24%; the other 67% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Chehalis
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Chehalis is better than 41% of U.S. towns, #218 of 285 in Washington. Unemployment holds Chehalis’ grade up (4.0%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (15.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Chehalis could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The daily flow of workers through Chehalis
On a workday 3,040 residents head out to work and 606 work right here.
About 11,000 people are in Chehalis on a workday afternoon, 39% more 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.
The daily trip into Chehalis
Where Chehalis clocks in
11% of workers
7% of workers
6% 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.
How far Chehalis’ workers travel
About 30% 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.
The kinds of work in Chehalis
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chehalis, 2013 → 2023: 5,825 → 6,686. 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 Chehalis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Chehalis’ commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chehalis workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,889 commuters (the 10% 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.
In Chehalis, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chehalis is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #164 of 285 in Washington. Both inputs place Chehalis 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 3,202 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 13.3% of Chehalis households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Chehalis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Chehalis places 2,036th of 3,091 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Normandy Park WA | 6,609 | $162K | 4.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 212 | Wollochet WA | 6,689 | $149K | 1.5% | 3.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 248 | Orting WA | 8,884 | $133K | 2.4% | 2.8% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,034 | Decorah IA | 7,417 | $64K | 8.1% | 4.0% | 46% | C+ |
| 2,035 | Oneida NY | 10,009 | $62K | 14.3% | 3.5% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,036 | Chehalis WA | 7,764 | $74K | 15.0% | 4.0% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,037 | North Lakes AK | 10,223 | $102K | 7.3% | 7.1% | — | C+ |
| 2,038 | Stroudsburg PA | 5,809 | $67K | 12.0% | 5.0% | 13% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,091 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Chehalis, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
Bordering towns draw 11% of Chehalis’ workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Centralia. Darker towns draw more of Chehalis’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Chehalis: questions
What is the median household income in Chehalis?
$73,702 (±$10,507) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chehalis?
15.0%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chehalis?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chehalis work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Centralia (11%, 4 mi), Olympia (7%, 26 mi), Seattle (6%, 72 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chehalis walkable?
Chehalis is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chehalis without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chehalis, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chehalis
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.