San Diego

City Commute Profile

San Diego, CA

Where San Diego’s 660,813 resident workers go each day — 60.6% work within the area; the top destination beyond it is Chula Vista.

CaliforniaLODES 2023 data
62
Commute Score

62 / 100

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

San Diego at a glance
Employed Residents
660,813
Fewer than the city’s total population
Median home–work distance
12.9mi
Straight-line, not road distance
Work Locally
60.6%
Share working within the area
Work from home
21.2%
Residents who work from home (ACS)
Top destination outside city
Chula Vista
Excludes local — most work in-city

These figures are for San Diego 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 San Diego 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.

San Diego

660,813 commutes, one dot at a time

San Diego

Where 660,813 workers commute

Each dot ≈ 75 workers

Where residents work

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

1San Diego0.0 mi400,776
2Chula Vista12.9 mi23,470
3Los Angeles114.4 mi18,124
4Poway14.3 mi11,210
5El Cajon10.8 mi10,359
6Carlsbad25.0 mi9,735
7La Mesa7.2 mi8,888
8National City8.4 mi8,250

Who commutes in

Top origin places for workers who travel into San Diego.

1San Diego0.0 mi400,776
2Chula Vista12.9 mi60,972
3El Cajon10.8 mi18,774
4Escondido23.9 mi16,605
5Los Angeles114.4 mi16,437
6La Mesa7.2 mi15,631
7National City8.4 mi13,551
8Santee10.0 mi13,401

Top industries

The sectors that employ San Diego’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 Assistance15.3%
PTProfessional, Scientific, and Technical Services14.5%
AFAccommodation and Food Services10.5%
EDEducational Services9.2%
ADAdministrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services7.9%
MFManufacturing6.4%
RTRetail Trade6.2%
PAPublic Administration4.8%
COConstruction3.7%

San Diego city profile

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

Population
1,389,526
Median age
36.2yrs
Median household income
$108,077
Median home value
$906,700
Median gross rent
$2,313/mo
Bachelor’s degree or higher
51.0%
Poverty rate
11.0%

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 San Diego

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

9 providers · 1 with fiber
Speed availabilityshare of homes a plan reaches
1 Gbps98% of homes
2 Gbps93%
5 Gbps90%
8 Gbps2%
See all internet providers in San Diego

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).