Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 3.0Unemployment in Clifton (8.6%) is higher than in 91% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 85% of U.S. towns. For jobs and income Clifton is better than 14% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (C+). Only 5% work in Clifton; the top destination outside it is Grand Junction (63%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Clifton apart on work
More than half of Clifton works in Grand Junction
5,144 working residents, 63%, have their main job in Grand Junction, 5.8 miles away across the town line. That’s 13 times as many as work in Clifton itself. The commute map ↓
Most Clifton residents work close to home
73% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Clifton is a place people come home to
There are 2,015 jobs based in Clifton, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Clifton has about 13,000 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
34% of the jobs based in Clifton are held by workers 29 or younger, against 26% of Clifton’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
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.
Clifton’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Clifton’s grade up (ahead of 42% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Clifton could be anywhere from D to C.
The places Clifton commutes to
Where Clifton clocks in
63% of workers
4% of workers
2% 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.
How far it is to work from Clifton
About 19% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Clifton
On a workday 7,798 residents head out to work, 416 work right here, and 1,599 people come in from elsewhere.
About 13,000 people are in Clifton on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.25 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.
The kinds of work in Clifton
2,015 jobs are based in Clifton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clifton, 2013 → 2023: 2,120 → 2,015. 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 Clifton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Clifton’s commute takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clifton workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,024 commuters (the 14% who work from home are left out). Across Colorado: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Driving is how Clifton gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 6.4% across Colorado.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 8,187 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). 3.7% of Clifton households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Clifton’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Clifton compares with U.S. towns of 14,000 to 26,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Greenwood Village CO | 15,323 | $149K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Lone Tree CO | 15,278 | $124K | 4.9% | 3.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 203 | Castle Pines CO | 15,583 | $191K | 6.9% | 2.6% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,677 | Steubenville OH | 17,922 | $48K | 26.6% | 5.3% | 33% | D |
| 1,678 | Marshall TX | 24,467 | $55K | 22.4% | 8.1% | 32% | D |
| 1,679 | Clifton CO | 19,518 | $52K | 15.0% | 8.6% | 5% | D |
| 1,680 | McKeesport PA | 16,907 | $34K | 32.0% | 11.5% | 12% | D |
| 1,681 | Jacksonville TX | 14,658 | $51K | 26.5% | 6.4% | 32% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,760 | 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 Clifton, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
The towns next door employ 64% of Clifton
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Clifton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clifton | – | D | C+ | 22 min | $52,100 |
| Grand Junction | 63% | C+ | A | 16 min | $70,080 |
| Fruitvale | 1% | B− | B | 22 min | $77,887 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Grand Junction. Darker towns draw more of Clifton’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 Clifton: questions
What is the median household income in Clifton?
$52,100 (±$4,948) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clifton?
15.0%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clifton?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clifton work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grand Junction (63%, 6 mi), Denver (4%, 197 mi), Fruita (2%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clifton walkable?
Clifton is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clifton without a car?
1% 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 Clifton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clifton
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.