Photo: Ixnayonthetimmay · CC BY-SA 4.0Show Low’s household incomes are lower than in 73% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 12.2% of residents, next to 12.5% for Arizona as a whole. Jobs and income earn Show Low C−; getting around on foot earns it B. Home is the office for 8% of workers; Arizona has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Show Low: the figures worth knowing
Inside Show Low’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Show Low is better than 23% of U.S. towns, #87 of 140 in Arizona. Unemployment holds Show Low’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Show Low could be anywhere from D to B−.
Each way, about 19 minutes from Show Low
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Show Low workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,160 commuters (the 8% 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.
Show Low fills up on a workday
On a workday 2,667 residents head out to work, 1,720 work right here, and 4,454 people come in from elsewhere.
About 14,000 people are in Show Low on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
Where Show Low goes to work
Where Show Low clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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 the 6,174 jobs in Show Low are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Show Low, 2013 → 2023: 4,984 → 6,174. 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 Show Low’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Show Low
About 29% 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.
Driving is how Show Low gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Show Low is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns, #56 of 140 in Arizona. Both inputs place Show Low 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 4,541 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). 4.4% of Show Low households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Show Low’s commuters take a bus or train.
Show Low is 1,999th of 2,354 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 17,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Paradise Valley AZ | 12,251 | $247K | 5.5% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 381 | Vail AZ | 16,315 | $131K | 4.3% | 1.6% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 637 | Tanque Verde AZ | 15,866 | $122K | 2.3% | 4.4% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,997 | Hidalgo TX | 15,376 | $59K | 21.1% | 8.8% | 10% | C− |
| 1,998 | Jacinto City TX | 9,388 | $47K | 27.1% | 8.5% | 2% | C− |
| 1,999 | Show Low AZ | 12,471 | $60K | 12.2% | 4.7% | 39% | C− |
| 2,000 | Dixon IL | 14,582 | $59K | 17.8% | 5.2% | 28% | C− |
| 2,001 | Brownsville FL | 16,936 | $41K | 26.2% | 7.5% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,354 | 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 Show Low, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
Next door to Show Low
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Show Low workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Show Low | – | C− | B | 19 min | $60,368 |
| Wagon Wheel | under 2% | C+ | C | 16 min | $68,495 |
| Linden | under 2% | C | B | 24 min | $98,038 |
| White Mountain Lake | under 2% | D | C− | 38 min | $50,263 |
| Pinetop-Lakeside | 8% | C− | B | 24 min | $60,694 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Pinetop-Lakeside. Darker towns draw more of Show Low’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Show Low: questions
What is the median household income in Show Low?
$60,368 (±$7,322) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Show Low?
12.2%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Show Low?
19 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Show Low work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pinetop-Lakeside (8%, 9 mi), Phoenix (7%, 127 mi), Whiteriver (3%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Show Low walkable?
Show Low is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Show Low without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Show Low, from the people who make the trip.
More of Show Low
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.