Photo: Steven Pavlov · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs and the daily commute in Coulee Dam
About one in ten work in Coulee Dam itself; outside it, Elmer City draws the most (16%, 2 miles). Jobs and income earn Coulee Dam C−; getting around on foot earns it B. Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers; Washington has 20%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Coulee Dam, in brief
Commutes from Coulee Dam are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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; with 503 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Coulee Dam: the grade in detail
Family income holds Coulee Dam’s grade up ($86,583, U.S. $99,999); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
16% of Coulee Dam’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 (16% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 11.4%, against 15.8% for all residents. Unemployment (12.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($86,583), since student households pull the household median down ($66,732).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Coulee Dam could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Coulee Dam’s commute takes about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Coulee Dam workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 653 commuters (the 7% 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.
How many miles Coulee Dam commutes
About 31% 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.
Who commutes out of Coulee Dam, and who commutes in
On a workday 450 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 283 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Coulee Dam on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.67 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.
Where people from Coulee Dam work
Where Coulee Dam clocks in
16% of workers
13% 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.
Most jobs in Coulee Dam are in services
336 jobs are based in Coulee Dam.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Coulee Dam, 2013 → 2023: 424 → 336. 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 Coulee Dam’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Coulee Dam, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Coulee Dam is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 700 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). 3.9% of Coulee Dam households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Coulee Dam’s commuters take a bus or train.
Coulee Dam next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700: 3,362nd of 4,866 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Yarrow Point WA | 1,143 | $250K | 4.5% | 2.2% | 0% | A+ |
| 21 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,360 | Waterford PA | 1,430 | $51K | 16.1% | 12.2% | 8% | C− |
| 3,361 | Youngsville PA | 1,639 | $59K | 12.0% | 12.4% | 5% | C− |
| 3,362 | Coulee Dam WA | 1,241 | $67K | 15.8% | 12.7% | 11% | C− |
| 3,363 | New Brockton AL | 1,512 | $72K | 20.4% | 0.3% | 1% | C− |
| 3,364 | Lanark IL | 1,452 | $59K | 12.7% | 2.3% | 8% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Coulee Dam, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
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 Coulee Dam: questions
What is the median household income in Coulee Dam?
$66,732 (±$4,330) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Coulee Dam?
15.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 11.4%. Washington: 9.9%.
How long is the commute from Coulee Dam?
16 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Coulee Dam work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elmer City (16%, 2 mi), Grand Coulee (13%, 2 mi), Nespelem Community (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Coulee Dam walkable?
Coulee Dam is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Coulee Dam without a car?
0% 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 Coulee Dam, from the people who make the trip.
More of Coulee Dam
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.