Sand Hollow Wash Bridge · Photo: Kimberly Cazier · CC BY-SA 3.0Scenic ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
Measured by household income, Scenic is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Scenic are D for jobs and income and D for walkability. For 41% of workers, the job is at home, where Arizona as a whole has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Scenic in brief
Scenic and Mesquite trade workers both ways
Mesquite is the top workplace for Scenic residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Scenic come from (39% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Home offices are common in Scenic
41% of Scenic workers work from home, against 18% across Arizona. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% 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 262 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Scenic
On income, poverty and job access, Scenic is better than 6% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Scenic’s grade up (12.5%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($29,063, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (10.4%) is left out: Scenic’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Scenic could be anywhere from D− to C.
27% of working residents work in Mesquite
Where Scenic clocks in
27% of workers
14% 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.
Working from home in Scenic
of Scenic workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 179 commuters (the 41% 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.
How far Scenic’s workers travel
About 42% 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 daily commute in and out of Scenic
On a workday 254 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 76 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Scenic on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.32 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
84 jobs are based in Scenic.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Scenic, 2013 → 2023: 34 → 84. 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 Scenic’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Scenic, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Scenic is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Scenic near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 302 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 0.0% of Scenic households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Scenic’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Scenic is 5,235th among 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 813 | Fort Valley AZ | 1,761 | $126K | 5.2% | 0.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 924 | Mountainaire AZ | 1,103 | $112K | 5.2% | 5.7% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,029 | Centennial Park AZ | 1,839 | $168K | 3.5% | 2.5% | 31% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,233 | Rolland Township MI | 1,442 | $55K | 20.6% | 7.0% | 2% | D |
| 5,234 | Sherman Township MI | 1,026 | $49K | 13.8% | 0.3% | 2% | D |
| 5,235 | Scenic AZ | 1,379 | $29K | 12.5% | 10.4% | 3% | D |
| 5,236 | Kenwood OK | 1,284 | $58K | 18.5% | 6.6% | 0% | D |
| 5,237 | Cobden IL | 1,024 | $46K | 28.8% | 4.0% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Scenic, 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.
- Two counts of out-of-state work. The Census survey asks workers where they work: 41% of Scenic workers work outside Arizona. The job records count 58% 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 Scenic: questions
What is the median household income in Scenic?
$29,063 (±$14,750) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Scenic?
12.5%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Scenic work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mesquite (27%, 6 mi), St. George (14%, 31 mi), Las Vegas (6%, 80 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Scenic walkable?
Scenic is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Scenic without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Scenic, from the people who make the trip.
More of Scenic
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.