San Juan River Bridge at Shiprock · Photo: Mx. Granger · CC0Shiprock’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
3% of workers work from home, against 12% across New Mexico. The poverty rate is 34.6%, where New Mexico as a whole has 17.8%. Jobs and income earn Shiprock D−; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Shiprock: the figures worth knowing
Jobs in Shiprock have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Shiprock went from 514 in 2013 to 1,416 in 2023, +175%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Shiprock pay better than its residents’ jobs
82% of the jobs based in Shiprock pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 49% of the jobs Shiprock residents hold. 86% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Shiprock. The jobs ↓
Shiprock trades workers with the towns around it
Shiprock has about as many jobs (1,416) as working residents (1,436), but they are mostly different people: 1,240 residents leave for work each day while 1,220 people come in. Only 14% of the jobs in Shiprock are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Shiprock and Farmington trade workers both ways
Farmington is the top workplace for Shiprock residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Shiprock come from (34% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Shiprock workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 29 minutes each way, against 24 across New Mexico. Over a year that’s about 222 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Shiprock earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Shiprock is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #72 of 72 in New Mexico. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Shiprock’s grade.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Shiprock stays D−.
In Shiprock, services account for most jobs
1,416 jobs are based in Shiprock.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shiprock, 2013 → 2023: 514 → 1,416. 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 Shiprock’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Shiprock on a workday
On a workday 1,240 residents head out to work, 196 work right here, and 1,220 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 (0.99 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.
20% of working residents work in Farmington
Where Shiprock clocks in
20% of workers
8% 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.
Getting to work from Shiprock takes about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shiprock workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,601 commuters (the 3% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Shiprock
About 34% 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.
Getting around Shiprock: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shiprock is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #29 of 73 in New Mexico. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,688 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 51% 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 0.8 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 55% 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). 10.9% of Shiprock households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Shiprock’s commuters take a bus or train.
Shiprock and other U.S. towns of 5,300 to 10,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 588 | White Rock NM | 5,716 | $157K | 2.5% | 0.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 804 | Los Ranchos de Albuquerque NM | 5,790 | $73K | 8.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,250 | Eldorado at Santa Fe NM | 5,619 | $107K | 8.4% | 2.1% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,109 | Oscoda Township MI | 7,158 | $43K | 25.3% | 9.9% | 18% | D− |
| 3,110 | Monroeville AL | 5,758 | $33K | 28.8% | 11.3% | 25% | D− |
| 3,111 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Shiprock, 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 Shiprock: questions
What is the median household income in Shiprock?
$35,900 (±$4,068) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shiprock?
34.6%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shiprock?
29 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shiprock work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Farmington (20%, 28 mi), Albuquerque (8%, 163 mi), Sanostee (4%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shiprock walkable?
Shiprock is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shiprock without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shiprock, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shiprock
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.