Work & commute · Santa Clara

Work & commute in Santa Clara, CA

Most working residents leave Santa Clara for work: only 14% work in town. The top destinations are San Jose (20%), Sunnyvale (9%) and Mountain View (6%). Half commute less than 6 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

14%

8,694 of 62,194 working residents

Typical commute

6 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

23 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

26%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 53,500 Santa Clara residents head out of town to work, 8,694 work right here, and 109,816 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Santa Clara.

53,500live here, work elsewhere

8,694live and work here

109,816work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Santa Clara goes to work

San Jose9.7 mi away

20%12,677

Santa Clara (in town)right here

14%8,694

Sunnyvale3.5 mi away

9%5,707

Mountain View6.6 mi away

6%4,037

San Francisco63.5 mi away

6%3,759

Cupertino5.3 mi away

6%3,684

Palo Alto9.9 mi away

5%3,285

Fremont9.1 mi away

3%1,939

Menlo Park12.7 mi away

3%1,817

Milpitas6.3 mi away

2%1,338

Everywhere elseother towns and states

25%15,257

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

How far

How far Santa Clara commutes

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

63%

17%

12%

63%Under 10 mi

17%10–24 mi

12%25–50 mi

8%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Santa Clara is a job hub

1.91jobs per working resident

A job hub

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

The jobs

What the jobs in Santa Clara are

118,510 jobs are based in Santa Clara. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Santa Clara’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Santa Clara

118,510 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)33%

Trade, transport & utilities7%

Services (health, schools, offices…)60%

$1,250 a month or less5%

$1,251–$3,333 a month9%

Over $3,333 a month86%

Jobs Santa Clara residents hold

62,194 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)21%

Trade, transport & utilities11%

Services (health, schools, offices…)68%

$1,250 a month or less6%

$1,251–$3,333 a month11%

Over $3,333 a month83%

+31%

Jobs based in Santa Clara, 2013 → 2023: 90,422 → 118,510. 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.