Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domainSells has 1.9 jobs for every working resident: 617 people commute in to work
Getting around Sells on foot earns B. Employers in Sells report 676 jobs for 360 working residents. Working from home is the commute for 9% of workers, 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 work figures that set Sells apart
Sells’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sells is Phoenix, 115 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (42) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
54% 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 ↓
Sells is where the jobs are
Sells has 676 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 360 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How many miles Sells commutes
About 54% 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.
Who leaves Sells for work, and who comes in
On a workday 301 residents head out to work and 59 work right here.
About 2,300 people are in Sells on a workday afternoon, 16% more 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.
The daily trip into Sells
Where Sells clocks in
12% of workers
11% 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.
76% of the jobs in Sells pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sells, 2013 → 2023: 477 → 676. 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 Sells’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Sells spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sells workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 417 commuters (the 9% 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.
In Sells, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sells is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 458 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 45.3% of Sells households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sells’ commuters take a bus or train.
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 Sells: questions
What is the poverty rate in Sells?
49.5%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sells?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sells work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phoenix (12%, 115 mi), Tucson (11%, 61 mi), Tempe (3%, 102 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sells walkable?
Sells is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sells without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 45% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sells, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sells
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.