Photo: Greg Tally - User: (WT-shared) WineCountryInn at wts wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 3.0More than half of Palisade’s working residents commute to Grand Junction
32% of workers have no commute at all; Colorado has 21%. Jobs and income earn Palisade C+; getting around on foot earns it A. About one in ten stay in Palisade for work; outside it, Grand Junction is the main destination (51%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Palisade: the gist
More than half of Palisade works in Grand Junction
464 working residents, 51%, have their main job in Grand Junction, 11 miles away. That’s 5 times as many as work in Palisade itself. The commute map ↓
A lot of Palisade works from home
33% of Palisade workers work from home, against 21% across Colorado. Time on the road ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Palisade
55% of Palisade residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 34% of the jobs based in Palisade pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 90% leave town for their job. 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 914 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Palisade’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Palisade is better than 42% of U.S. towns, #120 of 159 in Colorado. Household income holds Palisade’s grade up ($80,587, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Palisade could be anywhere from D to A.
The towns that employ Palisade’s residents
Where Palisade clocks in
51% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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.
About 32 minutes each way for Palisade’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palisade workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 954 commuters (the 32% 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 823 jobs based in Palisade
823 jobs are based in Palisade.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palisade, 2013 → 2023: 575 → 823. 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 Palisade’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Palisade on a workday
On a workday 825 residents head out to work, 89 work right here, and 734 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 (0.90 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.
How far Palisade’s workers travel
About 21% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Palisade
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palisade is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #35 of 159 in Colorado. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.4% across Colorado, on an EPA index of 8.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,413 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). 10.1% of Palisade households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Palisade’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500, Palisade ranks 2,730th of 5,083 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Acres Green CO | 2,639 | $142K | 8.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,728 | Level Plains AL | 1,838 | $77K | 12.1% | 4.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,729 | Hanceville AL | 3,390 | $42K | 16.6% | 0.0% | 6% | C+ |
| 2,730 | Palisade CO | 2,599 | $81K | 9.0% | 5.4% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,731 | Elmwood Place OH | 2,083 | $45K | 12.9% | 8.2% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,732 | Carroll NY | 3,389 | $77K | 6.5% | 6.2% | 10% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | 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 Palisade, 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 Palisade: questions
What is the median household income in Palisade?
$80,587 (±$29,239) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palisade?
9.0%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palisade?
32 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 32% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palisade work?
10% work in town.
Is Palisade walkable?
Palisade is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palisade without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palisade, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palisade
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.