Photo: Nesnad · CC BY-SA 3.0Nooksack has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Employers in Nooksack report 296 jobs, against 665 working residents. Jobs and income earn Nooksack C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. Home is the office for 10% of workers; Washington has 20%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Nooksack’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Nooksack is better than 40% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Nooksack’s grade up ($97,159, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.2%) is left out: Nooksack’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, Nooksack could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Nooksack by day and by night
On a workday 639 residents head out to work, 26 work right here, and 270 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Nooksack on a workday afternoon, 20% 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 2023, primary jobs.
25% of working residents work in Bellingham
Where Nooksack clocks in
25% 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.
A place that makes things: 29% of Nooksack’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Nooksack, 2013 → 2023: 269 → 296. 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 Nooksack’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of Washington
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Nooksack workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 772 commuters (the 9% 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 far Nooksack goes to work
About 21% 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.
In Nooksack, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Nooksack is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.9% across Washington.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 853 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). 2.3% of Nooksack households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Nooksack’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500, Nooksack ranks 2,826th of 5,656 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | McMillin WA | 1,348 | $141K | 2.3% | 4.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,824 | Concordia MO | 2,338 | $59K | 15.5% | 1.0% | 21% | C+ |
| 2,825 | Plattsburg MO | 2,239 | $63K | 17.5% | 1.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,826 | Nooksack WA | 1,833 | $97K | 14.7% | 5.2% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,827 | Weston Township OH | 2,172 | $66K | 9.0% | 6.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,828 | Latta OK | 1,405 | $76K | 10.9% | 3.1% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Nooksack, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
Nooksack and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Everson (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Nooksack’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Nooksack: questions
What is the median household income in Nooksack?
$97,159 (±$21,766) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Nooksack?
14.7%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Nooksack?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Nooksack work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bellingham (25%, 14 mi), Lynden (11%, 6 mi), Ferndale (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Nooksack walkable?
Nooksack is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Nooksack without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Nooksack, from the people who make the trip.
More of Nooksack
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.