Photo: zeesstof from The Woodlands, TX, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Superior’s household incomes are lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 10% of workers, next to 18% for Arizona as a whole. Below the poverty line: 16.3% of residents, against 12.5% across Arizona. Jobs and income earn Superior D; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Superior and work: the main findings
Superior’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Superior is Phoenix, 59 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (182) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
41% 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.
Why Superior gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Superior is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #125 of 140 in Arizona. Unemployment holds Superior’s grade up (6.2%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Superior could be anywhere from D− to C.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Superior
About 41% 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 commutes out of Superior, and who commutes in
On a workday 959 residents head out to work, 165 work right here, and 249 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Superior on a workday afternoon, 27% fewer than live here.
0.37 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.
16% of working residents work in Phoenix
Where Superior clocks in
16% of workers
9% 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.
Goods jobs make up 31% of work in Superior
414 jobs are based in Superior.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Superior, 2013 → 2023: 270 → 414. 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 Superior’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Superior: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Superior workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 960 commuters (the 10% 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.
Superior is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Superior is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #26 of 140 in Arizona. Both inputs place Superior 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 1,069 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). 5.3% of Superior households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Superior’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Superior compares with U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 855 | Kachina Village AZ | 3,212 | $90K | 4.3% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 867 | St. Johns AZ | 3,336 | $132K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 13% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,257 | Centennial Park AZ | 1,839 | $168K | 3.5% | 2.5% | 31% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,704 | Trinity TX | 2,450 | $28K | 34.7% | 5.5% | 13% | D |
| 4,705 | Rush Township OH | 2,801 | $56K | 19.3% | 8.7% | 4% | D |
| 4,706 | Superior AZ | 2,611 | $45K | 16.3% | 6.2% | 15% | D |
| 4,707 | Crosby MN | 2,330 | $42K | 16.9% | 5.3% | 13% | D |
| 4,708 | Bernie MO | 1,828 | $48K | 24.1% | 2.7% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Superior, 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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Superior: questions
What is the median household income in Superior?
$45,030 (±$7,822) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Superior?
16.3%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Superior?
29 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Superior work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phoenix (16%, 59 mi), Mesa (9%, 35 mi), Tempe (6%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Superior walkable?
Superior is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Superior without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Superior, from the people who make the trip.
More of Superior
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.