Photo: Tedder · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Oroville trail those of 96% of U.S. towns
Oroville grades D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. The poverty rate is 26.9%; Washington has 9.9%. 11% of workers have no commute at all (Washington 20%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Oroville and work: the main findings
A big share show a job far from home
45% 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 ↓
Commutes from Oroville are quick
The average trip to work takes 11 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 123 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington worker. Time on the road ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
48% of the jobs in Oroville are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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 540 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Oroville
On income, poverty and job access, Oroville is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Oroville’s grade.
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Oroville’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Oroville stays D−.
Short hops and long hauls from Oroville
About 45% 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.
About 11 minutes to work from Oroville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oroville workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 598 commuters (the 11% 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 Oroville’s employers do
504 jobs are based in Oroville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oroville, 2013 → 2023: 694 → 504. 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 Oroville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Oroville, and who commutes in
On a workday 436 residents head out to work, 104 work right here, and 400 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 (0.93 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.
8% of working residents work in Tonasket
Where Oroville clocks in
8% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
Oroville is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oroville is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 670 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). 7.4% of Oroville households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Oroville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Oroville sits among U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | Monroe North WA | 1,456 | $170K | 0.8% | 3.7% | <1% | A+ |
| 103 | Cathcart WA | 2,064 | $130K | 3.2% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,199 | Columbus NM | 1,484 | $26K | 22.7% | 6.3% | 4% | D− |
| 5,200 | Cave Junction OR | 2,074 | $39K | 27.7% | 8.3% | 21% | D− |
| 5,201 | Oroville WA | 1,935 | $40K | 26.9% | 5.5% | 19% | D− |
| 5,202 | Pablo MT | 1,632 | $36K | 34.5% | 9.5% | 8% | D− |
| 5,203 | Aliceville AL | 2,024 | $39K | 36.9% | 13.8% | 17% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Oroville, 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 Oroville: questions
What is the median household income in Oroville?
$39,755 (±$5,797) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oroville?
26.9%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oroville?
11 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oroville work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tonasket (8%, 16 mi), Omak (7%, 36 mi), Seattle (4%, 163 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oroville walkable?
Oroville is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oroville without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oroville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oroville
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.