Photo: Jingletown · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Meeker (0.2%) is lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
About half work in Meeker itself; outside it, Grand Junction draws the most (2%, 75 miles). For jobs and income Meeker is better than 57% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A). 11% of workers have no commute at all, against 21% across Colorado.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Meeker at work: what stands out
Why Meeker gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Unemployment holds Meeker’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Meeker could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Getting to work from Meeker takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Meeker workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,091 commuters (the 11% 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 many people are in Meeker by day
On a workday 507 residents head out to work, 434 work right here, and 650 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.15 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.
Where Meeker goes to work
Where Meeker clocks in
2% of workers
2% 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.
The 1,084 jobs based in Meeker
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Meeker, 2013 → 2023: 976 → 1,084. 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 Meeker’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Meeker commutes
About 28% 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.
In Meeker, 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 1,232 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 Meeker households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Meeker’s commuters take a bus or train.
Meeker places 1,935th of 5,207 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Stepping Stone CO | 3,137 | $224K | 0.0% | 2.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Holly Hills CO | 2,572 | $122K | 6.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 153 | Acres Green CO | 2,639 | $142K | 8.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,933 | Calvin Township MI | 2,030 | $81K | 8.7% | 6.9% | 1% | B |
| 1,934 | Harrisville Township OH | 1,757 | $91K | 16.3% | 3.2% | 2% | B |
| 1,935 | Meeker CO | 2,417 | $67K | 5.2% | 0.2% | 46% | B |
| 1,936 | Smithsburg MD | 3,212 | $101K | 15.7% | 4.1% | 2% | B |
| 1,937 | Sumrall MS | 2,299 | $70K | 4.4% | 6.9% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | 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 Meeker, 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 Meeker: questions
What is the median household income in Meeker?
$66,548 (±$19,381) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Meeker?
5.2%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Meeker?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Meeker work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grand Junction (2%, 75 mi), Glenwood Springs (2%, 46 mi), Rangely (2%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Meeker walkable?
Meeker is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Meeker without a car?
3% 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 Meeker, from the people who make the trip.
More of Meeker
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.