Photo: Christopher Sundita at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Kettle Falls earn less than those in 89% of U.S. towns
3% of workers work from home (Washington 20%). 14.5% of residents live below the poverty line (Washington 9.9%). For jobs and income Kettle Falls is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Kettle Falls: the figures worth knowing
A big share show a job far from home
46% 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 ↓
Kettle Falls and Colville trade workers both ways
Colville is the top workplace for Kettle Falls residents (24%) and also where the most people who work in Kettle Falls come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Kettle Falls workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 20% across Washington. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 586 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Kettle Falls
The poverty rate holds Kettle Falls’ grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.3%) is left out: Kettle Falls’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, Kettle Falls could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Kettle Falls
About 46% 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.
24% of working residents work in Colville
Where Kettle Falls clocks in
24% of workers
11% of workers
5% 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 19 minutes each way, quicker than most of Washington
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kettle Falls workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 628 commuters (the 3% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Kettle Falls
On a workday 527 residents head out to work, 59 work right here, and 434 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 (0.84 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Making and building: 32% of jobs based in Kettle Falls
493 jobs are based in Kettle Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kettle Falls, 2013 → 2023: 411 → 493. 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 Kettle Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Kettle Falls start in a car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 646 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). 5.1% of Kettle Falls households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kettle Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Kettle Falls is 4,807th among 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| 33 | Ames Lake WA | 1,245 | $250K | 1.1% | 3.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,805 | Stoneville NC | 1,364 | $45K | 28.3% | 8.1% | 3% | D |
| 4,806 | New Rockford ND | 1,342 | $44K | 12.9% | 3.7% | 30% | D |
| 4,807 | Kettle Falls WA | 1,657 | $49K | 14.5% | 7.3% | 10% | D |
| 4,808 | Lubec ME | 1,237 | $52K | 14.7% | 2.7% | 20% | D |
| 4,809 | Rutland Township OH | 2,084 | $40K | 17.3% | 6.1% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Kettle Falls, 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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Kettle Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Kettle Falls?
$48,682 (±$7,649) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kettle Falls?
14.5%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kettle Falls?
19 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kettle Falls work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Colville (24%, 9 mi), Spokane (11%, 71 mi), Spokane Valley (5%, 76 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kettle Falls walkable?
Kettle Falls is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kettle Falls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kettle Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kettle Falls
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.