Photo: Drums600 at English Wikipedia · Public domainSumas’ household incomes are higher than in 67% of U.S. towns
Only 5% work in Sumas itself; outside it, Bellingham draws the most (18%, 19 miles). 9.7% of residents live below the poverty line (Washington 9.9%). Sumas grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Sumas, in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Sumas
On income, poverty and job access, Sumas is better than 38% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Sumas’ grade up ($89,375, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Sumas’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sumas could be anywhere from D to B+.
Goods, not services: 53% of the jobs in Sumas
563 jobs are based in Sumas.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sumas, 2013 → 2023: 470 → 563. 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 Sumas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Sumas quiets down on a workday
On a workday 741 residents head out to work, 36 work right here, and 527 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Sumas on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.72 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.
The places Sumas commutes to
Where Sumas clocks in
18% of workers
16% of workers
6% 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.
The trip to work from Sumas: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sumas workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 632 commuters (the 13% 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 Sumas to work
About 22% 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.
In Sumas, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 727 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). 4.6% of Sumas households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sumas’ commuters take a bus or train.
Sumas next to U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300: 2,873rd of 5,760 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| 33 | Ames Lake WA | 1,245 | $250K | 1.1% | 3.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,871 | Pine Mountain GA | 1,303 | $91K | 18.5% | 1.2% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,872 | Larimore ND | 1,359 | $88K | 8.3% | 2.5% | 12% | C+ |
| 2,873 | Sumas WA | 1,672 | $89K | 9.7% | 2.5% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,874 | Honey Creek Township IL | 1,450 | $93K | 10.4% | 0.3% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,875 | Prattsburgh NY | 1,980 | $77K | 7.1% | 2.6% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Sumas, 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 Sumas: questions
What is the median household income in Sumas?
$89,375 (±$20,587) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sumas?
9.7%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sumas?
29 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sumas work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bellingham (18%, 19 mi), Lynden (16%, 9 mi), Ferndale (6%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sumas walkable?
Sumas is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sumas without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sumas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sumas
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.