Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0Households in Cortez have lower incomes than those in 82% of U.S. towns
Cortez grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 15.0% of residents are in poverty, where Colorado as a whole has 9.4%. 7% of workers work from home (Colorado 21%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Cortez apart on work
The figures behind Cortez’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cortez is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #144 of 159 in Colorado. Unemployment holds Cortez’s grade up (4.1%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($54,247, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cortez could be anywhere from D to B−.
A commute of about 15 minutes in Cortez
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cortez workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,631 commuters (the 7% 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.
How a workday changes Cortez
On a workday 1,980 residents head out to work, 1,837 work right here, and 3,168 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Cortez on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.31 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.
6% of working residents work in Durango
Where Cortez clocks in
6% 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.
What work there is in Cortez: 5,005 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cortez, 2013 → 2023: 4,807 → 5,005. 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 Cortez’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Cortez commutes less than 3 miles
About 20% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Cortez
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,892 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). 4.9% of Cortez households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cortez’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Cortez is 2,453rd among 2,855 U.S. towns of 6,400 to 12,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Cherry Creek CO | 10,721 | $154K | 5.0% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 104 | Fairmount CO | 9,902 | $164K | 2.9% | 2.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 114 | Timnath CO | 11,600 | $178K | 4.4% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,451 | Meadow Lakes AK | 8,689 | $82K | 14.0% | 6.8% | — | C− |
| 2,452 | Sedona AZ | 9,619 | $74K | 14.0% | 6.2% | 39% | C− |
| 2,453 | Cortez CO | 9,126 | $54K | 15.0% | 4.1% | 48% | C− |
| 2,454 | Navasota TX | 9,904 | $51K | 14.2% | 7.2% | 14% | C− |
| 2,455 | Cusseta GA | 8,465 | $61K | 13.9% | 9.1% | 9% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,855 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Cortez, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
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 Cortez: questions
What is the median household income in Cortez?
$54,247 (±$7,098) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cortez?
15.0%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cortez?
15 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cortez work?
48% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Durango (6%, 39 mi), Towaoc (3%, 13 mi), Grand Junction (2%, 120 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cortez walkable?
Cortez is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cortez 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 Cortez, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cortez
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.