U.S. Post Office-Pullman · Photo: Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0College students make up 45% of Pullman’s residents
Home is the office for 11% of workers, where Washington as a whole has 20%. Jobs and income earn Pullman C+; getting around on foot earns it A. More than half work in Pullman itself; outside it, Moscow draws the most (6%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Pullman at work: what stands out
Commutes from Pullman are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington worker. Time on the road ↓
Many of the people who work in Pullman live in another state
Moscow, ID (12%) and Lewiston, ID (2%) are among the top places Pullman’s workers come from. Counting only the top ten home towns, 14% of the jobs here are held by people from out of state. The commute map ↓
A young workforce
31% of Pullman’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Pullman
On family income, poverty and job access, Pullman is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #220 of 285 in Washington. Family income holds Pullman’s grade up ($99,144, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.6%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (34% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.6%, against 30.4% for all residents. Unemployment (8.3%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($99,144), since student households pull the household median down ($46,812).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Pullman could be anywhere from C to B.
From Pullman, about 15 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pullman workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 14,903 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.
The towns that employ Pullman’s residents
Where Pullman clocks in
3% of workers
2% 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.
68% of the jobs in Pullman pay over $3,333 a month
14,677 jobs are based in Pullman.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pullman, 2013 → 2023: 13,419 → 14,677. 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 Pullman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Pullman: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 4,219 residents head out to work, 6,243 work right here, and 8,434 people come in from elsewhere.
About 38,000 people are in Pullman on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.40 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.
How far Pullman goes to work
About 25% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Pullman
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pullman is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #101 of 285 in Washington. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 21.9% 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 16,702 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). 9.4% of Pullman households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Pullman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 24,000 to 46,000, Pullman ranks 972nd of 1,255 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Mercer Island WA | 25,422 | $219K | 3.8% | 3.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 139 | Issaquah WA | 39,423 | $155K | 5.2% | 3.3% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 203 | Edmonds WA | 42,748 | $122K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 970 | Thomasville NC | 27,733 | $61K | 16.3% | 4.6% | 14% | C+ |
| 971 | Barberton OH | 24,748 | $52K | 15.6% | 4.2% | 11% | C+ |
| 972 | Pullman WA | 33,756 | $47K | 30.4% | 8.3% | 60% | C+ |
| 973 | El Paso de Robles (Paso Robles) CA | 31,626 | $92K | 13.1% | 6.3% | 29% | C+ |
| 974 | Decatur Township IN | 37,678 | $70K | 17.4% | 6.7% | 8% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,255 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Pullman, 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.
- Students. 45% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Pullman: questions
What is the median household income in Pullman?
$46,812 (±$2,689) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pullman?
30.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.6%. Washington: 9.9%.
How long is the commute from Pullman?
15 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pullman work?
60% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Moscow (6%, 8 mi), Spokane (3%, 66 mi), Richland (2%, 106 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pullman walkable?
Pullman is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 22% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pullman without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pullman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pullman
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.