Photo: SummitCove · CC BY 4.0A job hub: Keystone has 2.6 jobs per working resident, and 2,160 people come in to work
Keystone grades D for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Employers in Keystone report 2,360 jobs; 911 of its residents have a job. Measured by household income, Keystone is behind 86% 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 Keystone, in brief
Keystone fills up on a workday
Keystone has 2,360 jobs, 2.6 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,700 people are in town, more than double the 1,300 who live here. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Keystone’s workers comes from Denver
165 of the people who work in Keystone live in Denver, 57 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Nearly all the work in Keystone is services
98% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. 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; with 911 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Keystone’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Keystone is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Keystone’s grade up (11.9%, U.S. 11.9%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 6% of U.S. towns).
18% of Keystone’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (19% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 11.9%, against 26.3% for all residents. Unemployment (1.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Household income is not adjusted: student households count in the median.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Keystone could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How many people are in Keystone by day
On a workday 711 residents head out to work and 200 work right here.
About 2,700 people are in Keystone on a workday afternoon, 114% more 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.
Who travels to work in Keystone, and from where
Where Keystone clocks in
10% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
Keystone is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Keystone, 2013 → 2023: 1,533 → 2,360. 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 Keystone’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 17 minutes from Keystone
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Keystone workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 694 commuters (the 23% 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.
The commute from Keystone, by distance
About 33% 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.
Most trips from Keystone start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Keystone is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 76.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.4% across Colorado, on an EPA index of 3.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 906 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). 17.9% of Keystone households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 35% of Keystone’s commuters take a bus or train.
3,985th of 4,866: where Keystone ranks among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Columbine Valley CO | 1,684 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Aetna Estates CO | 1,010 | $75K | 1.1% | 0.5% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 503 | Perry Park CO | 1,570 | $158K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,983 | Twisp WA | 1,126 | $60K | 13.3% | 9.9% | 15% | D |
| 3,984 | Kathio Township MN | 1,568 | $63K | 25.1% | 15.8% | 42% | D |
| 3,985 | Keystone CO | 1,274 | $52K | 26.3% | 1.7% | 22% | D |
| 3,986 | Buchanan GA | 1,028 | $53K | 17.1% | 10.0% | 5% | D |
| 3,987 | Cole Camp MO | 1,169 | $47K | 12.7% | 1.5% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Keystone, 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.
- Students. 18% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Keystone: questions
What is the median household income in Keystone?
$51,591 (±$9,145) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Keystone?
26.3% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 11.9%. Colorado: 9.4%.
How long is the commute from Keystone?
17 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Keystone work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Breckenridge (10%, 10 mi), Denver (7%, 57 mi), Avon (4%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Keystone walkable?
Keystone is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 3.3 out of 20, and 77% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Keystone without a car?
35% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Keystone, from the people who make the trip.
More of Keystone
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.