Photo: Marine 69-71 · CC BY-SA 4.0Pima has higher household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, against 18% across Arizona. Below the poverty line: 5.1% of residents; Arizona has 12.5%. Jobs and income earn Pima B−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Pima stands out on work
Pima and Safford trade workers both ways
Safford is the top workplace for Pima residents (22%) and also where the most people who work in Pima come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Pima has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Pima went from 373 in 2013 to 620 in 2023, +66%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
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 836 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Where Pima’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pima is better than 54% of U.S. towns, #46 of 140 in Arizona. The poverty rate holds Pima’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pima could be anywhere from C to A−.
22% of working residents work in Safford
Where Pima clocks in
22% of workers
9% of workers
8% 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 620 jobs based in Pima
620 jobs are based in Pima.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pima, 2013 → 2023: 373 → 620. 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 Pima’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Pima, by distance
About 34% 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.
In and out of Pima on a workday
On a workday 687 residents head out to work, 149 work right here, and 471 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.
0.74 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
How long Pima spends getting to work: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pima workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,428 commuters (the 3% 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.
The commute in Pima is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pima is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns, #73 of 140 in Arizona. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,465 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). 1.8% of Pima households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pima’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Pima ranks: 2,069th of 4,698 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 881 | Kachina Village AZ | 3,212 | $90K | 4.3% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 894 | St. Johns AZ | 3,336 | $132K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,270 | Clifton AZ | 3,752 | $78K | 2.5% | 0.8% | 8% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,067 | Florida NY | 2,756 | $93K | 6.3% | 6.0% | 8% | B− |
| 2,068 | Kinsey AL | 2,291 | $56K | 8.5% | 1.8% | 1% | B− |
| 2,069 | Pima AZ | 3,181 | $98K | 5.1% | 4.1% | 18% | B− |
| 2,070 | Star Valley AZ | 2,538 | $65K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 2% | B− |
| 2,071 | Jasper TN | 3,636 | $73K | 10.1% | 3.0% | 16% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | 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 Pima, 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 Pima: questions
What is the median household income in Pima?
$97,960 (±$16,522) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pima?
5.1%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pima?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pima work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Safford (22%, 9 mi), Thatcher (9%, 7 mi), Phoenix (8%, 138 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pima walkable?
Pima is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pima without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pima, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pima
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.