Photo: Public domain · Public domainCapitan has 0.8 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income D: better than 7% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 28 minutes each way (New Mexico 24, U.S. 26). About one in ten work in Capitan; the top destination outside it is Ruidoso (26%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Capitan
What’s behind Capitan’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Capitan is better than 7% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Capitan’s grade up (14.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.5%) is left out: Capitan’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, Capitan could be anywhere from D− to C.
Half of Capitan commutes less than 16 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 40% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 336 residents head out to work, 39 work right here, and 250 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 (0.77 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.
26% of working residents work in Ruidoso
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Capitan clocks in
26% of workers
10% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 289 jobs in Capitan are
289 jobs are based in Capitan. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Capitan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Capitan, 2013 → 2023: 179 → 289. 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.
About 28 minutes each way, longer than most of New Mexico
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Capitan workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 427 commuters (the 4% 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.
Most trips from Capitan start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Capitan is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of 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 443 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.3% of Capitan households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Capitan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Capitan is 5,143rd of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Capitan, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 826 | Santa Ana Pueblo NM | 1,026 | $86K | 5.5% | 2.9% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 892 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,038 | Mesilla NM | 1,818 | $75K | 4.5% | 6.8% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,141 | Plummer ID | 1,130 | $54K | 15.0% | 5.4% | 15% | D |
| 5,142 | Marlette MI | 1,833 | $49K | 18.0% | 10.3% | 20% | D |
| 5,143 | Capitan NM | 1,402 | $53K | 14.4% | 6.5% | 10% | D |
| 5,144 | Mayville ND | 1,807 | $56K | 19.0% | 5.2% | 41% | D |
| 5,145 | Sangerville ME | 1,336 | $50K | 13.5% | 6.9% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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.
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 Capitan: questions
What is the median household income in Capitan?
$52,864 (±$3,934) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Capitan?
14.4%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Capitan?
28 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Capitan work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ruidoso (26%, 14 mi), Albuquerque (10%, 124 mi), Ruidoso Downs (5%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Capitan walkable?
Capitan is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Capitan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Capitan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Capitan
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.