Paraje’s household incomes are among the lowest in the country
Jobs & income D−: near the bottom of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C−: more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Paraje’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Paraje is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Paraje’s grade.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Paraje’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, Paraje stays D−.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 80 residents head out to work, 0 work right here, and 43 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.
0.54 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 Laguna
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Paraje clocks in
19% of workers
14% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
43 jobs are based in Paraje. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Paraje’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Working from home in Paraje
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
of Paraje workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 250 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.
Half of Paraje commutes less than 32 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 30% 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.
Most trips from Paraje start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Paraje is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 3.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 281 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). 39.4% of Paraje households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Paraje’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Paraje compares with U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Paraje, 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 746 | Santa Ana Pueblo NM | 1,026 | $86K | 5.5% | 2.9% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 809 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,095 | Cuartelez NM | 1,512 | $114K | 5.6% | 20.8% | 0% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,396 | Nanawale Estates HI | 1,692 | $27K | 53.0% | 4.4% | 1% | D− |
| 5,397 | Polvadera NM | 1,033 | $27K | 88.7% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
| 5,398 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
| 5,399 | Prewitt NM | 1,027 | $19K | 54.4% | 24.7% | 2% | D− |
| 5,400 | 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.
19% of Paraje works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Laguna (19%). Darker towns draw more of Paraje’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Paraje workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paraje | – | D− | C− | — | $33,239 |
| Seama | under 3% | — | — | — | — |
| Laguna | 19% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Seama and Laguna: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. 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 Paraje: questions
What is the median household income in Paraje?
$33,239 (±$29,048) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Paraje?
61.7%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Paraje work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Laguna (19%, 4 mi), Albuquerque (14%, 47 mi), Mesita (10%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Paraje walkable?
Paraje is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Paraje without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 39% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Paraje, from the people who make the trip.
More of Paraje
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.