Photo: Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0Kalama has lower unemployment (1.3%) than 92% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Kalama is ahead of 78% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Kalama B+; getting around on foot earns it C+. 6% of workers work from home, next to 20% for Washington as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Kalama: the gist
Kalama trades workers with the towns around it
Kalama has about as many jobs (1,421) as working residents (1,346), but they are mostly different people: 1,241 residents leave for work each day while 1,316 people come in. Only 7% of the jobs in Kalama are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Kalama makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Kalama are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Kalama residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. The jobs ↓
Kalama’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Kalama is Vancouver, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (193) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Most jobs in Kalama pay over $40,000 a year
77% of the jobs based in Kalama pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
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.
Kalama’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Kalama is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #135 of 285 in Washington. Unemployment holds Kalama’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (13.4%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kalama could be anywhere from C+ to A.
A workday in Kalama: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,241 residents head out to work, 105 work right here, and 1,316 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.06 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Making and building: 54% of jobs based in Kalama
1,421 jobs are based in Kalama.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kalama, 2014 → 2024: 1,088 → 1,421. 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 Kalama’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Kalama
About 24% 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.
14% of working residents work in Vancouver
Where Kalama clocks in
14% of workers
12% 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.
About 24 minutes each way for Kalama’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kalama workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,209 commuters (the 6% 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.
Driving is how Kalama gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kalama is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns, #233 of 285 in Washington. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,290 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). 4.0% of Kalama households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kalama’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,456th of 4,698: where Kalama ranks among U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Clearview WA | 3,254 | $193K | 2.6% | 0.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Medina WA | 2,974 | $250K | 4.7% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Meadow Glade WA | 2,281 | $129K | 2.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,454 | Swedesboro NJ | 2,766 | $89K | 10.9% | 4.8% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,455 | Tusculum TN | 3,421 | $71K | 5.5% | 3.3% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,456 | Kalama WA | 3,165 | $102K | 13.4% | 1.3% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,457 | Salem Township IN | 4,057 | $70K | 6.3% | 3.4% | 9% | B+ |
| 1,458 | Noble Township IN | 2,954 | $73K | 3.3% | 4.0% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 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 Kalama, 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 Kalama: questions
What is the median household income in Kalama?
$102,026 (±$23,405) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kalama?
13.4%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kalama?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kalama work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vancouver (14%, 29 mi), Longview (12%, 11 mi), Portland (8%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Kalama walkable?
Kalama is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kalama 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 Kalama, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kalama
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.