Yakima draws about two in five of Selah’s working residents
Selah grades B− for jobs and income and B for walkability. 6% of workers work from home, where Washington as a whole has 20%. The trip to work takes 18 minutes on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Selah in brief
Most Selah residents work close to home
70% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Commutes from Selah are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington worker. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Selah
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Selah is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #206 of 285 in Washington. Job access by car holds Selah’s grade up (ahead of 60% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.9%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Selah could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Where Selah goes to work
Where Selah clocks in
42% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Selah
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.
The trip to work from Selah: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Selah workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,528 commuters (the 6% 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 daily flow of workers through Selah
On a workday 2,978 residents head out to work, 358 work right here, and 2,196 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 (0.77 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.
The 2,554 jobs based in Selah
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Selah, 2013 → 2023: 2,621 → 2,554. 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 Selah’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Selah, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Selah is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #193 of 285 in Washington. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% 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 3,737 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 84% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 21% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 67% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.0% of Selah households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Selah’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Selah is 1,824th among 2,893 U.S. towns of 6,100 to 11,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Maltby WA | 10,910 | $185K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | Normandy Park WA | 6,609 | $162K | 4.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 220 | Wollochet WA | 6,689 | $149K | 1.5% | 3.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,822 | Thompson CT | 9,566 | $94K | 5.9% | 7.9% | 10% | B− |
| 1,823 | Augusta KS | 9,073 | $65K | 11.9% | 4.2% | 15% | B− |
| 1,824 | Selah WA | 8,678 | $75K | 13.9% | 4.4% | 11% | B− |
| 1,825 | Coxsackie NY | 8,079 | $88K | 12.7% | 3.9% | 15% | B− |
| 1,826 | Tate Township OH | 9,527 | $78K | 11.1% | 3.5% | 7% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,893 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Selah, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
42% of Selah works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Yakima. Darker towns draw more of Selah’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 Selah: questions
What is the median household income in Selah?
$74,783 (±$8,510) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Selah?
13.9%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Selah?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Selah work?
11% work in town.
Is Selah walkable?
Selah is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 10.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Selah without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 21% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Selah, from the people who make the trip.
More of Selah
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.