Photo: The Bushranger · CC BY-SA 4.0Mexico Beach has lower household incomes than 68% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Mexico Beach is better than 31% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (B). The poverty rate is 5.6%, next to 12.6% for Florida as a whole. About one in ten work in Mexico Beach itself; outside it, Port St. Joe draws the most (18%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Mexico Beach apart on work
Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe trade workers both ways
Port St. Joe is the top workplace for Mexico Beach residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Mexico Beach come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
Mexico Beach’s workforce skews older
39% of Mexico Beach’s working residents are 55 or older. 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 289 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Mexico Beach’s grade
The poverty rate holds Mexico Beach’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.5%) is left out: Mexico Beach’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mexico Beach could be anywhere from D to B−.
The towns that employ Mexico Beach’s residents
Where Mexico Beach clocks in
18% 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.
Mexico Beach’s commute, mile by mile
About 34% 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.
What work there is in Mexico Beach: 301 jobs
301 jobs are based in Mexico Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mexico Beach, 2013 → 2023: 320 → 301. 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 Mexico Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 256 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 268 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 (1.04 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 long Mexico Beach spends getting to work: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mexico Beach workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 297 commuters (the 21% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In Mexico Beach, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 376 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). 4.1% of Mexico Beach households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mexico Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700, Mexico Beach ranks 2,654th of 4,866 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Fisher Island FL | 1,026 | $250K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Golden Beach FL | 1,029 | $236K | 7.1% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 139 | Belleair Beach FL | 1,581 | $164K | 5.9% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,652 | Canaan CT | 1,091 | $90K | 16.0% | 2.1% | 15% | C |
| 2,653 | Adams Township IN | 1,245 | $71K | 25.7% | 3.4% | 1% | C |
| 2,654 | Mexico Beach FL | 1,275 | $64K | 5.6% | 8.5% | 11% | C |
| 2,655 | Beaver Township IN | 1,537 | $71K | 8.5% | 4.1% | 6% | C |
| 2,656 | Enterprise Township KS | 1,019 | $109K | 29.1% | 4.7% | 0% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Mexico Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Mexico Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Mexico Beach?
$63,864 (±$15,328) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mexico Beach?
5.6%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mexico Beach?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mexico Beach work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Port St. Joe (18%, 11 mi), Panama City (15%, 22 mi), Tallahassee (3%, 78 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mexico Beach walkable?
Mexico Beach is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mexico Beach 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 Mexico Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mexico Beach
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.