Work & commute · Palo Alto

Work & commute in Palo Alto, CA

Most working residents leave Palo Alto for work: only 16% work in town. The top destinations are San Jose (9%), Stanford (8%) and San Francisco (8%). Half commute less than 8 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

16%

4,516 of 28,051 working residents

Typical commute

8 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

21 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

35%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 23,535 Palo Alto residents head out of town to work, 4,516 work right here, and 100,175 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Palo Alto.

23,535live here, work elsewhere

4,516live and work here

100,175work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Palo Alto goes to work

Palo Alto (in town)right here

16%4,516

San Jose19.3 mi away

9%2,417

Stanford2.5 mi away

8%2,254

San Francisco53.8 mi away

8%2,221

Mountain View3.5 mi away

8%2,204

Menlo Park5.8 mi away

6%1,630

Sunnyvale6.5 mi away

5%1,509

Santa Clara9.9 mi away

4%1,192

Redwood City9.1 mi away

3%966

Cupertino7.6 mi away

3%828

Everywhere elseother towns and states

30%8,314

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Palo Alto commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

57%

23%

11%

57%Under 10 mi

23%10–24 mi

11%25–50 mi

9%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Palo Alto is a job hub

3.73jobs per working resident

A job hub

3.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Palo Alto are

104,691 jobs are based in Palo Alto. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Palo Alto’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Palo Alto

104,691 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)7%

Trade, transport & utilities6%

Services (health, schools, offices…)88%

$1,250 a month or less4%

$1,251–$3,333 a month8%

Over $3,333 a month88%

Jobs Palo Alto residents hold

28,051 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)13%

Trade, transport & utilities9%

Services (health, schools, offices…)79%

$1,250 a month or less7%

$1,251–$3,333 a month9%

Over $3,333 a month84%

+8%

Jobs based in Palo Alto, 2013 → 2023: 96,711 → 104,691. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe 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 saysA 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 surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.