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Work & commute in Mission Hills · A commuter town

98% of Mission Hills’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Mission Hills for work: only 2% work in town. The top destinations are Lompoc (19%), Santa Maria (9%) and Santa Barbara (7%). Half commute less than 20 miles.

Work in town
2%
30 of 1,499 working residents
Typical commute
20 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
28 min
Less than CA (29 min)
Work from home
10%
Less than CA (17%)
Jobs based here
148
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Mission Hills?

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

★ What stands out · The commute map

19% of working residents work in Lompoc

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

Buellton: 67 residents work here (4%)Grover BeachSolvang: 55 residents work here (4%)Goleta: 70 residents work here (5%)Lompoc: 284 residents work here (19%)Santa Maria: 128 residents work here (9%)AtascaderoSanta Barbara: 112 residents work here (7%)OxnardLos Angeles: 46 residents work here (3%)Mission HillsVandenberg VillageOrcuttEastern Goleta Valley: 46 residents work here (3%)NipomoVandenberg AFB: 62 residents work here (4%)LompocSanta MariaSanta BarbaraGoletaBuelltonVandenberg AFBMission Hills
1
Lompoc2.5 mi away
19%284
2
Santa Maria16.9 mi away
9%128
3
Santa Barbara45.8 mi away
7%112
4
Goleta37.4 mi away
5%70
5
Buellton14.8 mi away
4%67
6
Vandenberg AFB4.7 mi away
4%62
7
Solvang18.3 mi away
4%55
8
Los Angeles124.6 mi away
3%46
93%46
10
Mission Hills (in town)right here
2%30
Everywhere elseother towns and states
40%599
The top trips

Where Mission Hills clocks in

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

Next door

19% of Mission Hills works in a bordering town

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

Day and night

Mission Hills quiets down on a workday

On a workday 1,469 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 118 people come in from elsewhere.

1,469live here, work elsewhere
30live and work here
118work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night3,900
Workday2,500
3,900live here− 1,500head out to work+ 120come in to work= 2,500on a workday

About 2,500 people are in Mission Hills on a workday afternoon, 35% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.10jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.10 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 Mission Hills commutes less than 20 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 miLompoc: 19% · 2.5 miSanta Maria: 9% · 16.9 miSanta Barbara: 7% · 45.8 miGoleta: 5% · 37.4 miBuellton: 4% · 14.8 miVandenberg AFB: 4% · 4.7 miSolvang: 4% · 18.3 miLos Angeles: 3% · 124.6 miEastern Goleta Valley: 3% · 40.9 miLompoc 19%Santa Maria 9%Santa Barbara 7%Goleta 5%Buellton 4%Mission Hills
Mission HillsTop destinations (size = commuters)
28%Under 10 mi425 residents
26%10–24 mi387 residents
20%25–50 mi296 residents
26%Over 50 mi391 residents

About 26% 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.

The jobs

Mission Hills makes things: 29% of its jobs are in goods

148 jobs are based in Mission Hills. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mission Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Mission HillsJobs Mission Hills residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms29%22%
Trade, transport & utilities14%15%
Services: health, schools, offices57%63%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less16%12%
$1,251–$3,333 a month32%25%
Over $3,333 a month53%63%

Who does it

29 or younger13%18%
30 to 5446%51%
55 and older41%31%
+57%

Jobs based in Mission Hills, 2013 → 2023: 94 → 148. 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.

Time on the road

About 28 minutes each way, about the CA average

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

A year of commuting
211 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Mission Hills28 min
California29 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
10%

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

About 1 in 10

How Mission Hills ranks on commute time →

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 Mission Hills

Mission Hills home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Mission Hills, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
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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.

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