With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Fern Prairie works elsewhere
Measured by household income, Fern Prairie is ahead of 86% of U.S. towns. There are 157 jobs in Fern Prairie for 847 working residents. The two grades for Fern Prairie are A− for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Fern Prairie, in a few figures
Fern Prairie and Vancouver trade workers both ways
Vancouver is the top workplace for Fern Prairie residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Fern Prairie come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fern Prairie is a place people come home to
There are 157 jobs based in Fern Prairie, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Fern Prairie has about 1,400 people in it, 34% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Fern Prairie are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 847 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Fern Prairie’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fern Prairie is better than 85% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($115,875, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 59% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (3.4%) is left out: Fern Prairie’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Fern Prairie could be anywhere from B to A+.
27% of working residents work in Vancouver
Where Fern Prairie clocks in
27% of workers
10% 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.
In and out of Fern Prairie on a workday
On a workday 842 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 152 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Fern Prairie on a workday afternoon, 34% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Fern Prairie
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fern Prairie workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 511 commuters (the 22% 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.
What Fern Prairie’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fern Prairie, 2014 → 2024: 126 → 157. 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 Fern Prairie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Fern Prairie goes to work
About 17% 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.
Few in Fern Prairie walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fern Prairie is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 652 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). 3.8% of Fern Prairie households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fern Prairie’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fern Prairie next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800: 564th of 5,793 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Monroe North WA | 1,456 | $170K | 0.8% | 3.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 111 | Cathcart WA | 2,064 | $130K | 3.2% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 562 | Blooming Grove WI | 1,488 | $90K | 6.6% | 2.7% | 1% | A− |
| 563 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| 564 | Fern Prairie WA | 2,053 | $116K | 5.8% | 3.4% | 1% | A− |
| 565 | Stanford Township MN | 2,389 | $104K | 6.0% | 2.0% | 1% | A− |
| 566 | Holland WI | 2,229 | $92K | 4.8% | 2.3% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Fern Prairie, 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 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 Fern Prairie: questions
What is the median household income in Fern Prairie?
$115,875 (±$26,556) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fern Prairie?
5.8%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fern Prairie?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fern Prairie work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vancouver (27%, 10 mi), Portland (17%, 14 mi), Camas (10%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Fern Prairie walkable?
Fern Prairie is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fern Prairie without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fern Prairie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fern Prairie
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.