Photo: Navajo Region Fire and Aviation Management Bureau of Indian Affairs · Public domainFew U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Navajo’s
Jobs and income earn Navajo D−; getting around on foot earns it D. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. The poverty rate is 51.6%, against 17.8% across New Mexico.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Navajo’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Navajo is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Navajo’s grade.
Unemployment (21.1%) is left out: Navajo’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Navajo stays D−.
Navajo by day and by night
On a workday 177 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 11 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.
0.07 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.
19% of working residents work in Gallup
Where Navajo clocks in
19% of workers
16% 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 health care, schools and offices in Navajo
13 jobs are based in Navajo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Navajo, 2013 → 2023: 3 → 13. 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 Navajo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Navajo’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Navajo workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 459 commuters (the 11% 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.
The commute from Navajo, by distance
About 53% 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.
The commute in Navajo is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Navajo is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 514 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 7.6% of Navajo households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Navajo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Navajo sits among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 718 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 911 | Tres Arroyos NM | 1,926 | $88K | 2.2% | 5.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,203 | Mesilla NM | 1,818 | $75K | 4.5% | 6.8% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,399 | Lukachukai AZ | 1,969 | $37K | 35.0% | 20.5% | 0% | D− |
| 5,400 | Meadview AZ | 1,517 | $26K | 33.2% | 22.0% | 4% | D− |
| 5,401 | Navajo NM | 2,181 | $32K | 51.6% | 21.1% | 1% | D− |
| 5,402 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | D− |
| 5,403 | Nanawale Estates HI | 1,692 | $27K | 53.0% | 4.4% | 1% | D− |
| 5,404 | 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 Navajo, 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 Navajo: questions
What is the median household income in Navajo?
$32,208 (±$10,011) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Navajo?
51.6%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Navajo?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Navajo work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gallup (19%, 31 mi), Albuquerque (16%, 145 mi), St. Michaels (9%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Navajo walkable?
Navajo is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Navajo without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Navajo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Navajo
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.