Photo: Librarian Hat, AG · Public domainGrand Junction draws more than half of Fruita’s working residents
10% of workers work from home; Colorado has 21%. The two grades for Fruita are B+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in seven work in Fruita itself; outside it, Grand Junction draws the most (57%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Fruita, in brief
More than half of Fruita works in Grand Junction
3,328 working residents, 57%, have their main job in Grand Junction, 9.8 miles away. That’s 4 times as many as work in Fruita itself. The commute map ↓
Fruita has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Fruita went from 2,139 in 2013 to 2,953 in 2023, +38%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Fruita’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fruita is better than 74% of U.S. towns, #66 of 159 in Colorado. The poverty rate holds Fruita’s grade up (4.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fruita could be anywhere from B to A−.
Where Fruita goes to work
Where Fruita clocks in
57% of workers
3% of workers
1% 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.
The 2,953 jobs based in Fruita
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fruita, 2013 → 2023: 2,139 → 2,953. 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 Fruita’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Fruita by day
On a workday 4,956 residents head out to work, 891 work right here, and 2,062 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Fruita on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.51 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.
How long Fruita spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fruita workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,654 commuters (the 10% 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.
Miles to work from Fruita
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.
Fruita is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fruita is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #80 of 159 in Colorado. Both inputs place Fruita 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 6,300 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). 4.3% of Fruita households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fruita’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Fruita ranks: 875th of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Cherry Creek CO | 10,721 | $154K | 5.0% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 85 | Timnath CO | 11,600 | $178K | 4.4% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 109 | Greenwood Village CO | 15,323 | $149K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 873 | Brooklyn Park MD | 16,067 | $88K | 8.3% | 4.6% | 3% | B+ |
| 874 | Greenwood Township IL | 15,270 | $98K | 4.7% | 4.9% | 4% | B+ |
| 875 | Fruita CO | 14,003 | $87K | 4.1% | 2.5% | 15% | B+ |
| 876 | Sycamore Township IL | 15,039 | $87K | 7.5% | 3.3% | 15% | B+ |
| 877 | Butler Township PA | 10,285 | $109K | 6.4% | 3.7% | 8% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | 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 Fruita, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
Around Fruita: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Redlands (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Fruita’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 Fruita: questions
What is the median household income in Fruita?
$87,184 (±$3,356) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fruita?
4.1%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fruita?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fruita work?
15% work in town.
Is Fruita walkable?
Fruita is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fruita 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 Fruita, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fruita
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.