Photo: Cobun Keegan · CC BY-SA 3.0Paonia has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 17.1%, against 9.4% across Colorado. Jobs and income earn Paonia D; getting around on foot earns it B−. About one in five work in Paonia itself; outside it, Delta draws the most (9%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Paonia in brief
Commutes from Paonia are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 25 across Colorado. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical Colorado worker. Time on the road ↓
Paonia’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Paonia is Delta, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (35) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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; with 410 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Paonia gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Paonia is better than 7% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Paonia’s grade up ($59,574, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Paonia’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Paonia could be anywhere from D− to C−.
About 12 minutes each way for Paonia’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Paonia workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 655 commuters (the 17% 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.
Half of Paonia commutes less than 23 miles
About 30% 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 works in Paonia, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 339 residents head out to work, 71 work right here, and 417 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 (1.19 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 Paonia goes to work
Where Paonia clocks in
7% 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.
The 488 jobs based in Paonia
488 jobs are based in Paonia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Paonia, 2013 → 2023: 406 → 488. 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 Paonia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Paonia, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Paonia is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.4% across Colorado, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 793 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). 2.1% of Paonia households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Paonia’s commuters take a bus or train.
5,512th of 6,308: where Paonia ranks among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Columbine Valley CO | 1,684 | $250K | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 386 | Aetna Estates CO | 1,010 | $75K | 1.1% | 0.5% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 690 | Perry Park CO | 1,570 | $158K | 3.2% | 2.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,510 | Fort Hancock TX | 1,345 | $48K | 12.3% | 3.2% | 3% | D |
| 5,511 | Malvern AL | 1,701 | $44K | 35.5% | 2.1% | 1% | D |
| 5,512 | Paonia CO | 1,477 | $60K | 17.1% | 5.8% | 17% | D |
| 5,513 | Springfield CO | 1,293 | $48K | 12.5% | 0.8% | 58% | D |
| 5,514 | Lapwai ID | 1,251 | $57K | 19.4% | 3.4% | 29% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Paonia, 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 Paonia: questions
What is the median household income in Paonia?
$59,574 (±$9,042) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Paonia?
17.1%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Paonia?
12 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Paonia work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Delta (9%, 28 mi), Grand Junction (7%, 54 mi), Hotchkiss (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Paonia walkable?
Paonia is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Paonia without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Paonia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Paonia
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.