Commuter-Adjusted Population Increased in Oregon’s Urban Cores in 2024

February 10, 2026

The massive increase in work from home in 2020 significantly decreased the foot traffic of Oregon’s urban cores. Fewer people commuted to work in traditional centralized employment areas, like Portland and Salem. However, since 2021, the number of people commuting into urban cores for work has increased. 

We can look at this change by looking at the commuter-adjusted population, which estimates the number of people in a geographic area during normal business hours. The commuter-adjusted population is calculated using American Community Survey data to estimate the number of people who live and work in an area during normal business hours. It is a measure of how a region’s foot traffic changes due to regular work commuting. It is not a complete measure of change in population composition as it excludes students, tourists and shoppers. Additionally, this measure ignores any day-to-day differences in travel. 

Using commuter-adjusted population, we will look at Oregon’s eight metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The MSAs are the state’s most populous areas and traditional centralized employment locations. Of the eight, only three include more than one county. The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro MSA (hereafter Portland MSA) is comprised of seven counties (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Yamhill and Washington in Oregon and Clark and Skamania in Washington state), the Salem MSA consists of two (Marion and Polk), and the Bend-Redmond MSA consists of three (Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson). Of the MSAs in Oregon, the Portland MSA saw far and away the largest changes in commuter-adjusted population in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multnomah County – the largest county in the Portland MSA by population, containing most of the city of Portland – saw its commuter-adjusted population plummet in 2021 and 2022 compared with 2019. Surrounding suburban counties experienced the opposite, registering increases in commuter-adjusted population from 2019 in 2021 and 2022. The 64,000-person decline in Multnomah’s commuter-adjusted population from 2019 to 2022 was likely caused by a mix of employee, employer, and resident decisions. Fewer people likely chose to commute into Multnomah from the surrounding counties, businesses could have moved out of the county or have decided to go fully remote, and a number of residents have migrated out of Multnomah, a lot of them likely going to surrounding counties.

Since 2021, there has been a slight rebound back to 2019 trends, where central counties are seeing a slight increase in commuter-adjusted population while more suburban “commuter” counties are seeing a slight decrease in their commuter-adjusted populations. This suggests a slight return to office and a slight decline in work from home compared with the pandemic period. 

Multnomah (containing Portland, a principal city and the largest city in the MSA) has seen a rebound of just over 10,000 people in the commuter-adjusted population from 2022 to 2024, despite seeing a decline in resident population in the same time period. However, the commuter-adjusted population in 2024 is still nearly 50,000 people lower than it was in 2019.

Yamhill (an outlying county in the MSA) saw an increase of nearly 7,000 in the commuter-adjusted population from 2021 to 2024, continuing an increase from 2019. Increases in the resident population and work from home levels both contributed to the increase in commuter-adjusted population.  

Washington County had an increase of around 12,000 people in the commuter-adjusted population from 2019 to 2024. This is both because of an increase in residential population of around 6,000 and an increase in work from home. 

Clackamas saw the second-largest increase in commuter-adjusted population with 17,000 more people in 2024 than 2019. This is likely mostly due to the increase in residential population of around 23,000. 

Clark (in Washington state) saw the largest increase in commuter-adjusted population within the Portland MSA, increasing by 32,000 from 2019 to 2024, along with an increase in resident population of 44,000.

The Salem MSA, another multi-county MSA in Oregon, also experienced a substantial shift in commuting patterns in 2021 which abated slightly from 2022 to 2024. The city of Salem is in both Marion and in Polk, where the Willamette River divides the two counties. West Salem – in Polk County – is largely residential housing with relatively few businesses compared with the portion of Salem in Marion County. Marion saw a slight increase in commuter-adjusted population of 3,000 from 2019 to 2024. Polk, on the other hand, saw a much larger increase of 8,000.

The Bend-Redmond MSA is the last multi-county MSA in Oregon, but the change in commuter-adjusted population is difficult to measure because while there is data for Deschutes County, there are no estimates provided for Crook and Jefferson. Looking at just Deschutes, though, there has been an increase of around 16,000 in commuter-adjusted population along with an increase of 14,000 in the resident population. 

For the five other single-county MSAs in Oregon, the commuter-adjusted population either increased or was not statistically different between 2019 and 2024. Change in resident population accounted for most of the change in commuter-adjusted population in those counties. Cities in these single-county MSAs likely face similar changes in commuting patterns, but it is difficult to measure with this methodology due to county geography. 

You can read more about the impact of home-based work on metro areas in the U.S. on the U.S. Census Bureau’s website.