Photo: Original uploader was Camerafiend at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0More than half of Mesilla’s working residents commute to Las Cruces
Jobs & income B+: better than 70% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability A: more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 51% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 16 minutes each way (New Mexico 24, U.S. 26). Only 4% work in Mesilla; the top destination outside it is Las Cruces (52%, 4 miles).
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.0 transit trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 0.0 in Las Cruces (EPA, 2020 schedules).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Mesilla
Mesilla and Las Cruces trade workers both ways
Las Cruces is the top workplace for Mesilla residents (52%) and also where the most people who work in Mesilla come from (58% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Mesilla residents work close to home
71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Mesilla is where the jobs are
Mesilla has 835 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 493 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Mesilla’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mesilla is better than 70% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Mesilla’s grade up (4.5%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($74,750, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (6.8%) is left out: Mesilla’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, Mesilla could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Where Mesilla’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Mesilla clocks in
52% of workers
10% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Mesilla commutes less than 4 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 19% 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.
Mesilla fills up on a workday
On a workday 474 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 816 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Mesilla on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
835 jobs are based in Mesilla. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mesilla’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mesilla, 2013 → 2023: 707 → 835. 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 16 minutes each way, quicker 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 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mesilla workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 590 commuters (the 17% 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.
Mesilla 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, Mesilla is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 8.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 713 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 0.0 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). 12.5% of Mesilla households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mesilla’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mesilla is 1,175th of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Mesilla, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 688 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 874 | Tres Arroyos NM | 1,926 | $88K | 2.2% | 5.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,039 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,173 | Winfield Township NJ | 1,450 | $64K | 8.5% | 8.4% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,174 | Walcott IA | 1,530 | $79K | 6.6% | 3.6% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,175 | Mesilla NM | 1,818 | $75K | 4.5% | 6.8% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,176 | Rehoboth Beach DE | 1,309 | $138K | 8.7% | 6.7% | 22% | B+ |
| 1,177 | Roaming Shores OH | 1,600 | $91K | 6.4% | 2.1% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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.
52% of Mesilla works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Las Cruces (52%). Darker towns draw more of Mesilla’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mesilla workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesilla | – | B+ | A | 16 min | $74,750 |
| Las Cruces | 52% | C− | A− | 19 min | $55,422 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Mesilla: questions
What is the median household income in Mesilla?
$74,750 (±$23,925) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mesilla?
4.5%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mesilla?
16 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mesilla work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Las Cruces (52%, 4 mi), University Park (10%, 4 mi), El Paso (6%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mesilla walkable?
Mesilla is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mesilla without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mesilla, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mesilla
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.