Photo: National Trails Office (US National Park Service) · Public domainWork means Santa Fe for more than half of Agua Fria’s working residents
Only 2% stay in Agua Fria for work; outside it, Santa Fe is the main destination (56%, 2 miles). For jobs and income Agua Fria is better than 18% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (C+). Working from home is the commute for 20% of workers, where New Mexico as a whole has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Agua Fria
Most Agua Fria residents work close to home
65% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Agua Fria is a place people come home to
There are 317 jobs based in Agua Fria, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Agua Fria has about 2,000 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Agua Fria works from home
20% of Agua Fria workers work from home, against 12% across New Mexico. Time on the road ↓
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.
Jobs & income in Agua Fria: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Agua Fria’s grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (25.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Agua Fria could be anywhere from D to B+.
Commuting out of Agua Fria: the destinations
Where Agua Fria clocks in
56% of workers
14% of workers
7% 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 distance from Agua Fria to work
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.
Agua Fria on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,187 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 298 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Agua Fria on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than live here.
0.26 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Each way, about 25 minutes from Agua Fria
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Agua Fria workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,193 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across New Mexico: 84% 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.
Jobs in Agua Fria: what the 317 are
317 jobs are based in Agua Fria.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Agua Fria, 2013 → 2023: 303 → 317. 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 Agua Fria’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Agua Fria, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across New Mexico.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,490 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 78% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 5% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 70% 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). 5.5% of Agua Fria households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Agua Fria’s commuters take a bus or train.
Agua Fria is 3,929th of 4,882 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900 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 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 419 | Sandia Heights NM | 3,160 | $144K | 4.7% | 3.5% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 800 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,421 | Las Campanas NM | 2,119 | $205K | 8.9% | 2.1% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,927 | Richland Township OH | 3,493 | $52K | 22.4% | 4.0% | 10% | C− |
| 3,928 | Rexland Acres CA | 2,760 | $56K | 25.4% | 10.1% | 1% | C− |
| 3,929 | Agua Fria NM | 2,898 | $65K | 25.3% | 7.9% | 2% | C− |
| 3,930 | Mulberry NC | 2,037 | $52K | 11.7% | 13.0% | 2% | C− |
| 3,931 | Rutherfordton NC | 3,723 | $59K | 12.7% | 7.3% | 10% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Agua Fria, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
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 Agua Fria: questions
What is the median household income in Agua Fria?
$65,101 (±$38,573) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Agua Fria?
25.3%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Agua Fria?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Agua Fria work?
2% work in town.
Is Agua Fria walkable?
Agua Fria is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Agua Fria without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 5% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Agua Fria, from the people who make the trip.
More of Agua Fria
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.