Martha Weiser House · Photo: Davidmendosa · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Gunbarrel works elsewhere
For jobs and income Gunbarrel is better than 64% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (A). Gunbarrel has 1,091 jobs, against 4,009 working residents. Measured by household income, Gunbarrel is ahead of 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Gunbarrel, in brief
A lot of Gunbarrel works from home
40% of Gunbarrel workers work from home, against 21% across Colorado. Time on the road ↓
40% of Gunbarrel works in Boulder
1,610 working residents, 40%, have their main job in Boulder, 5 miles away across the town line. That’s 13 times as many as work in Gunbarrel itself. The commute map ↓
Most jobs in Gunbarrel pay over $40,000 a year
77% of the jobs based in Gunbarrel pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Gunbarrel has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Gunbarrel went from 707 in 2013 to 1,091 in 2023, +54%. The jobs ↓
Most Gunbarrel residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. Only 6% work more than 50 miles away. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The four measures behind Gunbarrel’s grade
Household income holds Gunbarrel’s grade up ($109,407, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (6.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gunbarrel could be anywhere from B− to A.
About 22 minutes each way, quicker than most of Colorado
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gunbarrel workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,528 commuters (the 40% 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.
40% of working residents work in Boulder
Where Gunbarrel clocks in
40% of workers
9% of workers
5% 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 health care, schools and offices in Gunbarrel
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gunbarrel, 2013 → 2023: 707 → 1,091. 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 Gunbarrel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Gunbarrel, by distance
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.
Gunbarrel on a workday afternoon
On a workday 3,894 residents head out to work, 115 work right here, and 976 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Gunbarrel on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer 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.
In Gunbarrel, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,889 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 31% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 73% 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). 1.7% of Gunbarrel households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Gunbarrel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000, Gunbarrel ranks 1,325th of 2,878 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Cherry Creek CO | 10,721 | $154K | 5.0% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | Fairmount CO | 9,902 | $164K | 2.9% | 2.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 107 | Timnath CO | 11,600 | $178K | 4.4% | 0.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,323 | Harrison Township PA | 9,688 | $66K | 9.9% | 2.7% | 11% | B |
| 1,324 | Avocado Heights CA | 12,593 | $92K | 11.5% | 5.9% | 3% | B |
| 1,325 | Gunbarrel CO | 10,051 | $109K | 8.8% | 6.2% | 3% | B |
| 1,326 | Northridge OH | 7,817 | $85K | 8.2% | 4.3% | 2% | B |
| 1,327 | Cross Lanes WV | 9,671 | $64K | 5.1% | 3.5% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | 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 Gunbarrel, the top three, the last and three more from Colorado.
The towns next door employ 40% of Gunbarrel
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Boulder. Darker towns draw more of Gunbarrel’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 Gunbarrel: questions
What is the median household income in Gunbarrel?
$109,407 (±$13,543) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gunbarrel?
8.8%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gunbarrel?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 40% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gunbarrel work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Boulder (40%, 5 mi), Denver (9%, 26 mi), Longmont (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gunbarrel walkable?
Gunbarrel is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gunbarrel without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 31% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gunbarrel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gunbarrel
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.