Photo: Salvador Vitanza · CC BY-SA 2.5Household incomes in Nogales trail those of 94% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 7% of workers (Arizona 18%). The poverty rate is 28.0%, next to 12.5% for Arizona as a whole. Jobs and income earn Nogales D−; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Nogales and work: the main findings
Nogales’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Nogales is Tucson, 55 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (1,357) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
43% 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 ↓
Commutes from Nogales are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 25 across Arizona. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arizona worker. Time on the road ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
46% of the jobs in Nogales are in trade, transport and utilities, against 38% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Nogales workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Nogales’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 13% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
What’s behind Nogales’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Nogales is better than 2% of U.S. towns, #134 of 140 in Arizona. Job access by car holds Nogales’ grade up (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (15.7%, U.S. 5.2%).
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Nogales stays D−.
The distance from Nogales to work
About 43% 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.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of Arizona
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Nogales workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,842 commuters (the 7% 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.
What Nogales’ employers do
7,144 jobs are based in Nogales.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Nogales, 2013 → 2023: 7,438 → 7,144. 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 Nogales’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Nogales, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,548 residents head out to work, 2,689 work right here, and 4,455 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.99 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
19% of working residents work in Tucson
Where Nogales clocks in
19% of workers
11% of workers
6% 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.
The commute in Nogales is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Nogales is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #51 of 140 in Arizona. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,391 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.3% of Nogales households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Nogales’ commuters take a bus or train.
Nogales and other U.S. towns of 14,000 to 26,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 321 | Vail AZ | 16,315 | $131K | 4.3% | 1.6% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 492 | Anthem AZ | 22,584 | $121K | 4.1% | 4.4% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 520 | New River AZ | 18,240 | $134K | 6.3% | 3.0% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,756 | Belle Glade FL | 17,241 | $48K | 27.3% | 9.7% | 15% | D− |
| 1,757 | Selma AL | 16,077 | $33K | 30.8% | 14.0% | 33% | D− |
| 1,758 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | D− |
| 1,759 | Clearlake CA | 16,893 | $42K | 25.5% | 14.8% | 25% | D− |
| 1,760 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Nogales, 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 Nogales: questions
What is the median household income in Nogales?
$43,214 (±$3,897) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Nogales?
28.0%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Nogales?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Nogales work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tucson (19%, 55 mi), Rio Rico (11%, 10 mi), Phoenix (6%, 167 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Nogales walkable?
Nogales is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Nogales without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Nogales, from the people who make the trip.
More of Nogales
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.