Sign inJoin
Work & commute in Cathedral · A commuter town

90% of Cathedral’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Cathedral for work: only 10% work in town. The top destinations are Palm Springs (19%), Palm Desert (10%) and Rancho Mirage (10%). Half commute less than 9 miles.

Work in town
10%
2,059 of 20,577 working residents
Typical commute
9 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
20 min
Less than CA (29 min)
Work from home
10%
Less than CA (17%)
Jobs based here
9,301
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Cathedral?

Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Time on the road

About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of California

From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.

A year of commuting
153 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Cathedral20 min
California29 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
10%

of Cathedral workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10

How Cathedral ranks on commute time →

The commute map

19% of working residents work in Palm Springs

A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.

Rancho Mirage: 1,969 residents work here (10%)Cathedral CityLa Quinta: 500 residents work here (2%)Desert Hot Springs: 344 residents work here (2%)Indio: 583 residents work here (3%)Palm Desert: 1,976 residents work here (10%)CoachellaSan Diego: 554 residents work here (3%)Los Angeles: 625 residents work here (3%)Palm Springs: 3,965 residents work here (19%)GarnetThousand Palms: 490 residents work here (2%)Palm SpringsPalm DesertRancho MirageLos AngelesIndioSan DiegoCathedral
1
Palm Springs4.8 mi away
19%3,965
2
Cathedral City (in town)right here
10%2,059
3
Palm Desert8.8 mi away
10%1,976
4
Rancho Mirage5.4 mi away
10%1,969
5
Los Angeles112.4 mi away
3%625
6
Indio14.9 mi away
3%583
7
San Diego79.1 mi away
3%554
8
La Quinta17.6 mi away
2%500
9
Thousand Palms6.4 mi away
2%490
102%344
Everywhere elseother towns and states
37%7,512
The top trips

Where Cathedral clocks in

Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.

Next door

33% of Cathedral works in a bordering town

The biggest share goes to Palm Springs (19%). Darker towns draw more of Cathedral’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

The jobs

What the 9,301 jobs in Cathedral are

9,301 jobs are based in Cathedral. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cathedral’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in CathedralJobs Cathedral residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms16%10%
Trade, transport & utilities22%18%
Services: health, schools, offices62%72%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less14%12%
$1,251–$3,333 a month38%35%
Over $3,333 a month48%53%

Who does it

29 or younger24%23%
30 to 5450%50%
55 and older26%27%
+20%

Jobs based in Cathedral, 2013 → 2023: 7,776 → 9,301. 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.

Day and night

Cathedral quiets down on a workday

On a workday 18,518 residents head out to work, 2,059 work right here, and 7,242 people come in from elsewhere.

18,518live here, work elsewhere
2,059live and work here
7,242work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night52,000
Workday41,000
52,000live here− 19,000head out to work+ 7,200come in to work= 41,000on a workday

About 41,000 people are in Cathedral on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.45jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.45 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.

How far

Half of Cathedral commutes less than 9 miles

Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

10 mi25 mi50 mi80 miPalm Springs: 19% · 4.8 miPalm Desert: 10% · 8.8 miRancho Mirage: 10% · 5.4 miLos Angeles: 3% · 112.4 miIndio: 3% · 14.9 miSan Diego: 3% · 79.1 miLa Quinta: 2% · 17.6 miThousand Palms: 2% · 6.4 miDesert Hot Springs: 2% · 9.6 miPalm Springs 19%Palm Desert 10%Rancho Mirage 10%Los Angeles 3%Indio 3%Cathedral
CathedralTop destinations (size = commuters)
52%Under 10 mi10,690 residents
11%10–24 mi2,283 residents
7%25–50 mi1,383 residents
30%Over 50 mi6,196 residents

About 30% 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.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
  • Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
  • Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
  • Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
Beyond the commute

More of Cathedral

Cathedral home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Cathedral, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
Is the commute from Cathedral worth it?

Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.

Ask neighbors

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.

Post to Cathedral

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in