Photo: Ian Poellet · CC BY-SA 3.0Work, pay and getting to work in Shelton
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 3.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 94.7 in Seattle. Shelton grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability. For 9% of workers, the job is at home, against 20% across Washington.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Shelton, in a few figures
What’s behind Shelton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Shelton is better than 34% of U.S. towns, #232 of 285 in Washington. Unemployment holds Shelton’s grade up (3.8%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.4%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Shelton could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How a workday changes Shelton
On a workday 3,690 residents head out to work, 620 work right here, and 3,920 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 (1.05 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in Olympia
Where Shelton clocks in
10% of workers
6% 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.
What the 4,540 jobs in Shelton are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shelton, 2014 → 2024: 5,348 → 4,540. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Shelton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Shelton’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shelton workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,675 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.
The distance from Shelton to work
About 17% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Shelton
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shelton is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #108 of 285 in Washington. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.6% 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 4,049 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 85% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 29% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 79% 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). 9.6% of Shelton households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Shelton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000, Shelton comes 1,881st on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Maltby WA | 10,910 | $185K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Bothell East WA | 14,578 | $199K | 3.6% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 129 | Snoqualmie WA | 13,640 | $214K | 0.8% | 2.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,879 | Newark NY | 8,919 | $60K | 22.2% | 3.0% | 24% | C |
| 1,880 | Newton NC | 13,822 | $62K | 12.0% | 6.2% | 12% | C |
| 1,881 | Shelton WA | 10,921 | $70K | 17.4% | 3.8% | 14% | C |
| 1,882 | Marinette WI | 11,168 | $59K | 11.8% | 3.8% | 45% | C |
| 1,883 | Pontiac IL | 10,806 | $61K | 13.1% | 4.2% | 32% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 19% | 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 Shelton, 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 2024, 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 Shelton: questions
What is the median household income in Shelton?
$69,598 (±$8,800) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shelton?
17.4%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shelton?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shelton work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Olympia (10%, 16 mi), Seattle (6%, 45 mi), Tumwater (4%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Shelton walkable?
Shelton is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shelton without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 29% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shelton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shelton
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.