Work & commute · Prairie Heights

Work & commute in Prairie Heights, WA

Most working residents leave Prairie Heights for work: only 1% work in town. The top destinations are Seattle (12%), Tacoma (7%) and Kent (7%). Half commute less than 17 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

12 of 2,223 working residents

Typical commute

17 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

32 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 2,211 Prairie Heights residents head out of town to work, 12 work right here, and 116 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Prairie Heights.

2,211live here, work elsewhere

12live and work here

116work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Prairie Heights goes to work

Seattle34.4 mi away

12%263

Tacoma17.9 mi away

7%160

Kent17.4 mi away

7%158

Auburn11.8 mi away

6%130

Buckley4.3 mi away

5%106

Sumner8.3 mi away

5%106

Renton23.2 mi away

4%89

Puyallup8.8 mi away

3%76

Enumclaw6.8 mi away

3%73

Bonney Lake4.3 mi away

3%65

Everywhere elseother towns and states

45%997

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

How far

How far Prairie Heights commutes

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

27%

42%

23%

27%Under 10 mi

42%10–24 mi

23%25–50 mi

8%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Prairie Heights is a commuter town

0.06jobs per working resident

A commuter town

0.06 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Prairie Heights are

128 jobs are based in Prairie Heights. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Prairie Heights’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Prairie Heights

128 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)36%

Trade, transport & utilities20%

Services (health, schools, offices…)44%

$1,250 a month or less9%

$1,251–$3,333 a month22%

Over $3,333 a month70%

Jobs Prairie Heights residents hold

2,223 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)24%

Trade, transport & utilities23%

Services (health, schools, offices…)53%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month19%

Over $3,333 a month72%

+51%

Jobs based in Prairie Heights, 2013 → 2023: 85 → 128. 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.