Photo: Steven Baltakatei Sandoval · CC BY-SA 4.0Cougar has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cougar quiets down on a workday
On a workday 39 residents head out to work, 0 work right here, and 15 people come in from elsewhere.
About 130 people are in Cougar on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.38 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
21% of working residents work in Vancouver
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Cougar clocks in
21% of workers
10% of workers
8% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 15 jobs in Cougar are
15 jobs are based in Cougar. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cougar’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cougar, 2013 → 2023: 17 → 15. 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.
Working from home in Cougar
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
of Cougar workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 61 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Washington: 79% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Cougar commutes less than 31 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 16% 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.
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.
- Two counts of out-of-state work. The Census survey asks workers where they work: 0% of Cougar workers work outside Washington. The job records count 13% at employers in other states. The records use the address the employer reports and skip the self-employed, so the two can differ.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cougar: questions
What is the poverty rate in Cougar?
0.0%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Cougar work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vancouver (21%, 32 mi), Woodland (10%, 23 mi), Longview (8%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Cougar without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cougar, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cougar
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.