Tacoma

City Commute Profile

Tacoma, WA

Where Tacoma’s 100,904 resident workers go each day — 28.4% work within the area; the top destination beyond it is Seattle.

WashingtonLODES 2023 data
47
Commute Score

47 / 100

How short the typical commute is here, on an absolute 0–100 scale (higher is shorter). How it’s calculated.

Tacoma at a glance
Employed Residents
100,904
Fewer than the city’s total population
Median home–work distance
15.2mi
Straight-line, not road distance
Work Locally
28.4%
Share working within the area
Work from home
15.7%
Residents who work from home (ACS)
Top destination outside city
Seattle
Excludes local — most work in-city

These figures are for Tacoma proper — the Census place within its city limits — not the surrounding metro area. Metro-wide totals you’ll see elsewhere are larger because they bundle in neighboring cities and suburbs.

How Tacoma commutes

Every dot is a worker moving between home and job. Trace where the area pulls people in from — and where its residents head each day.

Tacoma

100,904 commutes, one dot at a time

Tacoma

Where 100,904 workers commute

Each dot ≈ 75 workers

Where residents work

Top destinations for people who live in Tacoma, by worker count.

1Tacoma0.0 mi28,639
2Seattle27.1 mi12,017
3Lakewood6.2 mi4,451
4Kent15.2 mi3,809
5Federal Way7.5 mi3,203
6Fife5.1 mi3,195
7Auburn12.3 mi3,028
8Puyallup8.8 mi2,979

Who commutes in

Top origin places for workers who travel into Tacoma.

1Tacoma0.0 mi28,639
2Lakewood6.2 mi5,051
3Seattle27.1 mi4,129
4South Hill11.8 mi4,092
5University Place4.1 mi4,085
6Federal Way7.5 mi3,503
7Parkland6.7 mi3,195
8Puyallup8.8 mi2,941

Top industries

The sectors that employ Tacoma’s workforce. Each bar is scaled to that sector’s share of all local jobs — the top sectors shown don’t add up to 100%.

Bar length = each sector’s share of all local jobs (0–100%)
HCHealth Care and Social Assistance24.1%
ADAdministrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services10.7%
PAPublic Administration9.4%
RTRetail Trade9.3%
AFAccommodation and Food Services7.6%
EDEducational Services6.1%
TRTransportation and Warehousing5.9%
MFManufacturing4.3%
PTProfessional, Scientific, and Technical Services4.2%

Tacoma city profile

Who lives in Tacoma — population, housing, and income, from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Population
222,758
Median age
37.2yrs
Median household income
$85,884
Median home value
$479,600
Median gross rent
$1,676/mo
Bachelor’s degree or higher
34.5%
Poverty rate
12.4%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 5-Year Estimates. Values shown as “—” are suppressed or unavailable for this place.

Connectivity

Internet options for Tacoma

The biggest home-internet providers in the area — tap any to compare local plans.

7 providers · 3 with fiber
Speed availabilityshare of homes a plan reaches
1 Gbps~all homes
2 Gbps100%
5 Gbps8%
8 Gbps8%
See all internet providers in Tacoma

FindBetterInternet is a CensusFlow partner site — we link out so you can compare local plans, and CensusFlow’s Census data stays independent. Provider data is from the FCC National Broadband Map (satellite + fixed wireless excluded).