Commutersheds · The United States

Click a name to see its watershed, zoom in for its tributaries

Every census tract runs into the town that takes the most of its workers. Each town then runs into the bigger place that takes the most of its workers, and so on, until it reaches a place nothing bigger pulls on. That place is a sea, and everything that reaches it is its basin.

A commuter town always flows on. A job centre (at least 4 jobs for every 5 resident workers) only flows on if at least 5% of its workers go that way; below that it keeps its own flow, like a lake with no outlet. Rivers are routed over a 5 km grid and merge where their paths meet. River width is the number of workers carried.

Workers

139.6M

Seas

972

Largest basins

LEHD LODES 2023, primary jobs, by home and work census block. Residents of the 50 states and DC. On the mainland a job across a state line counts; in Alaska and Hawaii only jobs in the state do. LODES places a job where the employer reports it, which is not always where the person goes. Michigan is 2021 and Alaska 2016, the latest LODES has for them. Puerto Rico is not covered by LODES.