Photo: The original uploader was Tillman at English Wikipedia. · CC BY 2.0Most of Ajo commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
There are 438 jobs in Ajo, and 837 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Ajo are D for jobs and income and A for walkability. Measured by household income, Ajo is behind 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ajo in brief
Most jobs in Ajo go to people who live here
Of the 438 jobs based in Ajo, 68% are held by Ajo residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
59% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Ajo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Ajo is Tucson, 119 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (130) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 837 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Ajo gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ajo is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #109 of 140 in Arizona. The poverty rate holds Ajo’s grade up (9.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ajo could be anywhere from D− to B−.
The daily commute in and out of Ajo
On a workday 540 residents head out to work, 297 work right here, and 141 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,700 people are in Ajo on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where in the region Ajo works
About 59% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
16% of working residents work in Tucson
Where Ajo clocks in
16% of workers
13% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Ajo is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ajo, 2013 → 2023: 445 → 438. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ajo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Ajo takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ajo workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 935 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Arizona: 82% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Ajo
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ajo is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns, #11 of 140 in Arizona. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 985 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 43% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 48% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.6% of Ajo households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ajo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ajo next to U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200: 4,003rd of 4,562 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 855 | Kachina Village AZ | 3,212 | $90K | 4.3% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 868 | St. Johns AZ | 3,336 | $132K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,232 | Clifton AZ | 3,752 | $78K | 2.5% | 0.8% | 8% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,001 | Cowpens SC | 2,257 | $39K | 29.1% | 1.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,002 | Home Township MI | 2,813 | $56K | 22.2% | 4.9% | 12% | D |
| 4,003 | Ajo AZ | 3,107 | $54K | 9.9% | 6.9% | 35% | D |
| 4,004 | Poplarville MS | 2,918 | $54K | 12.8% | 10.4% | 22% | D |
| 4,005 | Windsor Township MO | 3,454 | $52K | 23.3% | 4.7% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Ajo, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Ajo: questions
What is the median household income in Ajo?
$53,958 (±$4,644) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ajo?
9.9%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ajo?
17 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ajo work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tucson (16%, 119 mi), Phoenix (13%, 94 mi), Tempe (3%, 88 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ajo walkable?
Ajo is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ajo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ajo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ajo
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.