Fort Bayard Historic District · Photo: From the National Archives RG92-F-7-9 · Public domainSanta Clara has lower household incomes than 77% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Santa Clara D−; getting around on foot earns it D. Below the poverty line: 23.4% of residents, against 17.8% across New Mexico. 4% of workers have no commute at all, 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
Work in Santa Clara, in a few figures
Santa Clara and Silver City trade workers both ways
Silver City is the top workplace for Santa Clara residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Santa Clara come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
43% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Santa Clara are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 24 across New Mexico. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical New Mexico worker. 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; with 375 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Santa Clara’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Santa Clara is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Santa Clara’s grade up ($57,898, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 6% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.2%) is left out: Santa Clara’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, Santa Clara could be anywhere from D− to C.
27% of working residents work in Silver City
Where Santa Clara clocks in
27% of workers
11% of workers
6% 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.
How far Santa Clara goes to work
About 43% 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.
How long Santa Clara spends getting to work: about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Santa Clara workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 548 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Santa Clara on a workday afternoon
On a workday 353 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 281 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 (0.81 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.
Services make up most of the work in Santa Clara
303 jobs are based in Santa Clara.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Santa Clara, 2013 → 2023: 61 → 303. 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 Santa Clara’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Santa Clara commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Santa Clara is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. 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 571 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). 6.1% of Santa Clara households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Santa Clara’s commuters take a bus or train.
Santa Clara next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 618 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 795 | Tres Arroyos NM | 1,926 | $88K | 2.2% | 5.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 948 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,279 | Roodhouse IL | 1,484 | $53K | 25.6% | 16.1% | 3% | D− |
| 5,280 | Bloomfield MO | 1,734 | $42K | 25.1% | 7.4% | 5% | D− |
| 5,281 | Santa Clara NM | 1,592 | $58K | 23.4% | 6.2% | 6% | D− |
| 5,282 | Cherokee OK | 1,439 | $59K | 22.2% | 6.1% | 25% | D− |
| 5,283 | Greenwood Township MI | 1,132 | $55K | 20.7% | 12.0% | <1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Santa Clara, 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 Santa Clara: questions
What is the median household income in Santa Clara?
$57,898 (±$23,959) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Santa Clara?
23.4%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Santa Clara?
13 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 Santa Clara work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Silver City (27%, 7 mi), Albuquerque (11%, 182 mi), Las Cruces (6%, 85 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Santa Clara walkable?
Santa Clara is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Santa Clara without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Santa Clara, from the people who make the trip.
More of Santa Clara
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.