Photo: Yuet Man Lee · CC BY-SA 4.0Point Roberts has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income C−: better than 18% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability A−: more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are higher than in 54% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 33 minutes each way (Washington 27, U.S. 26). About one in three work in Point Roberts; the top destination outside it is Bellingham (12%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Point Roberts, in brief
A lot of Point Roberts works from home
48% of Point Roberts workers work from home, against 20% across Washington. Time on the road ↓
Point Roberts’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Point Roberts is Bellingham, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (41) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% 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 ↓
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 340 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Point Roberts’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Point Roberts is better than 18% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Point Roberts’ grade up ($78,125, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Point Roberts’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, Point Roberts could be anywhere from D to C+.
About 33 minutes each way, longer than most of Washington
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Point Roberts workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 337 commuters (the 48% who work from home are left out). Across Washington: 79% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Point Roberts commutes less than 32 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 42% 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.
Point Roberts quiets down on a workday
On a workday 230 residents head out to work, 110 work right here, and 41 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Point Roberts on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.44 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Bellingham
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Point Roberts clocks in
12% of workers
5% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 151 jobs in Point Roberts are
151 jobs are based in Point Roberts. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Point Roberts’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Point Roberts, 2013 → 2023: 201 → 151. 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.
Point Roberts 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, Point Roberts is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.9% across Washington, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 643 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). 6.1% of Point Roberts households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Point Roberts’ commuters take a bus or train.
Point Roberts is 3,441st of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Point Roberts, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Yarrow Point WA | 1,143 | $250K | 4.5% | 2.2% | 0% | A+ |
| 21 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,439 | Decatur Township OH | 1,307 | $73K | 14.1% | 19.4% | <1% | C− |
| 3,440 | Banner Hill TN | 1,211 | $60K | 28.4% | 10.3% | 1% | C− |
| 3,441 | Point Roberts WA | 1,288 | $78K | 14.9% | 2.4% | 32% | C− |
| 3,442 | Jonesboro IN | 1,510 | $46K | 16.3% | 7.7% | 1% | C− |
| 3,443 | Dick Johnson Township IN | 1,321 | $63K | 18.1% | 0.0% | <1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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.
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 Point Roberts: questions
What is the median household income in Point Roberts?
$78,125 (±$13,206) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Point Roberts?
14.9%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Point Roberts?
33 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 48% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Point Roberts work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bellingham (12%, 31 mi), Seattle (5%, 100 mi), Everett (2%, 81 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Point Roberts walkable?
Point Roberts is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Point Roberts without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Point Roberts, from the people who make the trip.
More of Point Roberts
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.