St. Michaels has 18.1 jobs for every working resident: 4,431 people commute in to work
Jobs and income earn St. Michaels C−; getting around on foot earns it B−. 4,513 jobs are based in St. Michaels for 249 working residents. About one in three work in St. Michaels itself; outside it, Fort Defiance draws the most (17%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from St. Michaels, in brief
St. Michaels fills up on a workday
St. Michaels has 4,513 jobs, 18.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 5,400 people are in town, 5 times the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Many of the people who work in St. Michaels live in another state
Gallup, NM (12%), Albuquerque, NM (3%) and Farmington, NM (2%) are among the top places St. Michaels’ workers come from. Counting only the top ten home towns, 17% of the jobs here are held by people from out of state. The commute map ↓
The biggest group of St. Michaels’ workers comes from Gallup
551 of the people who work in St. Michaels live in Gallup, NM, 22 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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 249 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for St. Michaels
On income, poverty and job access, St. Michaels is better than 20% of U.S. towns. Household income holds St. Michaels’ grade up ($65,556, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (12.7%) is left out: St. Michaels’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, St. Michaels could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Who commutes out of St. Michaels, and who commutes in
On a workday 167 residents head out to work and 82 work right here.
About 5,400 people are in St. Michaels on a workday afternoon, 373% 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.
Where St. Michaels’ workforce comes from
Where St. Michaels clocks in
17% of workers
8% of workers
4% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Michaels, 2013 → 2023: 141 → 4,513. 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 St. Michaels’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 30 minutes to work from St. Michaels
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Michaels workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 381 commuters (the 12% 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 many miles St. Michaels commutes
About 35% 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 St. Michaels, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. Michaels is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.9% across Arizona, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 433 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 43% 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 1.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 63% 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). 18.8% of St. Michaels households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of St. Michaels’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, St. Michaels ranks 2,588th of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 549 | Mountainaire AZ | 1,103 | $112K | 5.2% | 5.7% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,772 | North Fork AZ | 1,463 | $123K | 13.5% | 5.8% | 0% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,222 | Strawberry AZ | 1,094 | $60K | 5.7% | 0.0% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,586 | New Lyme Township OH | 1,026 | $55K | 13.2% | 7.2% | 1% | C− |
| 2,587 | Concord VT | 1,159 | $73K | 13.2% | 1.7% | 7% | C− |
| 2,588 | St. Michaels AZ | 1,142 | $66K | 13.9% | 12.7% | 33% | C− |
| 2,589 | Monteagle TN | 1,439 | $63K | 13.0% | 10.2% | 5% | C− |
| 2,590 | Plains TX | 1,323 | $77K | 15.5% | 9.9% | 25% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 St. Michaels, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
Next door to St. Michaels
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | St. Michaels workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Michaels | – | C− | B− | 30 min | $65,556 |
| Window Rock | under 2% | D | C+ | 23 min | $55,694 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of St. Michaels’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 St. Michaels: questions
What is the median household income in St. Michaels?
$65,556 (±$19,493) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Michaels?
13.9%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Michaels?
30 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Michaels work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Defiance (17%, 6 mi), Phoenix (8%, 223 mi), Gallup (4%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is St. Michaels walkable?
St. Michaels is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Michaels without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 19% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Michaels, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Michaels
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.