Photo: Fitchhollister · CC BY-SA 3.0Telluride has lower unemployment (1.4%) than 91% of U.S. towns
About half work in Telluride; the top destination outside it is Mountain Village (15%, 2 miles). Jobs and income earn Telluride A−; getting around on foot earns it A. Measured by household income, Telluride is ahead of 79% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Telluride stands out on work
Telluride is where the jobs are
Telluride has 2,354 jobs, 2.8 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 4,000 people are in town, 61% more than the 2,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Telluride are quick
The average trip to work takes 6 minutes, against 25 across Colorado. That’s about 146 hours a year less on the road than the typical Colorado worker. Time on the road ↓
Telluride and Mountain Village trade workers both ways
Mountain Village is the top workplace for Telluride residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Telluride come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 857 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Telluride: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Telluride is better than 80% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Telluride’s grade up (0.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Telluride could be anywhere from B to A.
Telluride by day and by night
On a workday 422 residents head out to work, 435 work right here, and 1,919 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Telluride on a workday afternoon, 61% more than live here.
2.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
About 6 minutes each way for Telluride’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Telluride workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,133 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.
Who travels to work in Telluride, and from where
Where Telluride clocks in
15% of workers
3% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
2,354 jobs are based in Telluride.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Telluride, 2013 → 2023: 1,553 → 2,354. 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 Telluride’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Telluride works
About 23% 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.
Telluride is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Telluride is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 78.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.4% across Colorado, on an EPA index of 8.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,369 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 2% 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 40% 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). 8.6% of Telluride households have no vehicle (Colorado 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Telluride’s commuters take a bus or train.
751st of 5,207: where Telluride ranks 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 749 | Upper Oxford Township PA | 2,595 | $115K | 6.7% | 3.0% | 4% | A− |
| 750 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| 751 | Telluride CO | 2,454 | $102K | 0.6% | 1.4% | 51% | A− |
| 752 | Woodville Township OH | 3,300 | $84K | 2.9% | 3.4% | 5% | A− |
| 753 | Earl Township PA | 3,184 | $100K | 11.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Telluride, 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 Telluride: questions
What is the median household income in Telluride?
$102,405 (±$40,795) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Telluride?
0.6%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Telluride?
6 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Telluride work?
51% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mountain Village (15%, 2 mi), Denver (3%, 202 mi), Grand Junction (2%, 89 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Telluride walkable?
Telluride is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 79% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Telluride without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Telluride, from the people who make the trip.
More of Telluride
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.