Photo: Gordon Leggett · CC BY 4.0Jobs, income and commuting in Quartzsite, AZ
About one in seven work in Quartzsite; the top destination outside it is Phoenix (19%, 122 miles). Getting around Quartzsite on foot earns B−. Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers (Arizona 18%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Quartzsite apart
A big share show a job far from home
78% 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 ↓
Quartzsite’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Quartzsite is Phoenix, 123 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (126) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Quartzsite are quick
The average trip to work takes 5 minutes, against 25 across Arizona. That’s about 153 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arizona worker. Time on the road ↓
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 660 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The commute from Quartzsite, by distance
About 78% 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.
The trip to work from Quartzsite: about 5 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 1.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Quartzsite workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 208 commuters (the 1% 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.
Quartzsite by day and by night
On a workday 568 residents head out to work, 92 work right here, and 392 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.
0.73 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.
Where Quartzsite goes to work
Where Quartzsite clocks in
19% of workers
5% 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.
What work there is in Quartzsite: 484 jobs
484 jobs are based in Quartzsite.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Quartzsite, 2013 → 2023: 527 → 484. 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 Quartzsite’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Quartzsite gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Quartzsite is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 23.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 3.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 211 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). 10.7% of Quartzsite households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Quartzsite’s commuters take a bus or train.
Quartzsite and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Quartzsite workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quartzsite | – | — | B− | 5 min | — |
| La Paz Valley | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. La Paz Valley: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Quartzsite’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Two counts of out-of-state work. The Census survey asks workers where they work: 0% of Quartzsite workers work outside Arizona. The job records count 13% at employers in other states. The records use the address the employer reports and skip the self-employed, so the two can differ.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Quartzsite: questions
What is the poverty rate in Quartzsite?
20.0%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Quartzsite?
5 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Quartzsite work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phoenix (19%, 122 mi), Las Vegas (5%, 187 mi), Enterprise (3%, 172 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Quartzsite walkable?
Quartzsite is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 24% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Quartzsite without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Quartzsite, from the people who make the trip.
More of Quartzsite
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.