Warden has 1.3 jobs for every working resident: 827 people commute in to work
Jobs & income D: better than 7% of U.S. towns on income, poverty, unemployment and job access · #278 of 285 in Washington.
Walkability A−: more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns · #133 of 285 in Washington.
Household incomes here are lower than in 77% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 17 minutes each way (Washington 27, U.S. 26). About one in five work in Warden; the top destination outside it is Moses Lake (17%, 15 miles).
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.3 transit trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 94.7 in Seattle (EPA, 2020 schedules).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Warden
Warden makes and builds things
65% of the jobs based in Warden are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Warden residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 40%. The jobs ↓
Warden and Moses Lake trade workers both ways
Moses Lake is the top workplace for Warden residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Warden come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Warden has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Warden went from 545 in 2013 to 957 in 2023, +76%. 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; with 724 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Warden’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Warden is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #278 of 285 in Washington. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Warden’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Warden could be anywhere from D− to C.
Warden makes things: 65% of its jobs are in goods
957 jobs are based in Warden. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Warden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Warden, 2013 → 2023: 545 → 957. 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.
17% of working residents work in Moses Lake
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Warden clocks in
17% of workers
8% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 594 residents head out to work, 130 work right here, and 827 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 (1.32 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.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Washington
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Warden workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 886 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.
Half of Warden commutes less than 16 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 32% 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.
Warden 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, Warden is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns, #133 of 285 in Washington. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.5% 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 944 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 7.9% of Warden households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Warden’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Warden compares with U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,800
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Warden, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Clearview WA | 3,254 | $193K | 2.6% | 0.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Medina WA | 2,974 | $250K | 4.7% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Cathcart WA | 2,064 | $130K | 3.2% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,335 | Wray CO | 2,352 | $57K | 17.5% | 0.5% | 37% | D |
| 4,336 | Waldport OR | 2,268 | $56K | 15.7% | 17.2% | 10% | D |
| 4,337 | Warden WA | 2,830 | $58K | 20.9% | 8.1% | 18% | D |
| 4,338 | Indianfields Township MI | 2,463 | $57K | 33.3% | 4.8% | 3% | D |
| 4,339 | Hoopa CA | 2,233 | $65K | 21.5% | 11.7% | 66% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,703 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Warden: questions
What is the median household income in Warden?
$57,743 (±$6,279) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Warden?
20.9%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Warden?
17 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Warden work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Moses Lake (17%, 15 mi), Othello (8%, 11 mi), Spokane (3%, 90 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Warden walkable?
Warden is more walkable than 81% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Warden without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Warden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Warden
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.