Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Las Animas (9.2%) than in 92% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns. Las Animas grades D− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. 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
The commute and the jobs: Las Animas in brief
Income, poverty and work: Las Animas’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Las Animas is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Las Animas’ grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Las Animas could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How far Las Animas goes to work
About 43% 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.
Who leaves Las Animas for work, and who comes in
On a workday 511 residents head out to work, 121 work right here, and 308 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
0.68 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.
8% of working residents work in La Junta
Where Las Animas clocks in
8% of workers
5% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Las Animas
429 jobs are based in Las Animas.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Las Animas, 2013 → 2023: 517 → 429. 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 Las Animas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Las Animas, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Las Animas workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 907 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.
In Las Animas, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Las Animas is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% 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 972 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 28% 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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 Las Animas households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Las Animas’ commuters take a bus or train.
Las Animas and other U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Columbine Valley CO | 1,684 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Holly Hills CO | 2,572 | $122K | 6.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 147 | Acres Green CO | 2,639 | $142K | 8.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,200 | Salem AR | 1,611 | $41K | 29.1% | 4.4% | 35% | D− |
| 5,201 | Center CO | 1,890 | $46K | 19.9% | 18.1% | 20% | D− |
| 5,202 | Las Animas CO | 2,325 | $52K | 35.7% | 9.2% | 19% | D− |
| 5,203 | Walsenburg CO | 3,039 | $51K | 25.2% | 11.5% | 26% | D− |
| 5,204 | Pearson GA | 1,908 | $32K | 36.4% | 6.0% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Las Animas, 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 Las Animas: questions
What is the median household income in Las Animas?
$51,875 (±$10,249) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Las Animas?
35.7%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Las Animas?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Las Animas work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are La Junta (8%, 19 mi), Colorado Springs (5%, 100 mi), Lamar (4%, 33 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Las Animas walkable?
Las Animas is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Las Animas 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 Las Animas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Las Animas
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.