Taos Pueblo · Photo: John Phelan · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Taos Pueblo trail those of 96% of U.S. towns
Taos Pueblo grades D− for jobs and income and C for walkability. The poverty rate is 49.1%, next to 17.8% for New Mexico as a whole. For 4% of workers, the job is at home, against 12% across New Mexico.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Taos Pueblo, in brief
Nearly half of Taos Pueblo works in Taos
99 working residents, 47%, have their main job in Taos, 5.5 miles away across the town line. That’s 16 times as many as work in Taos Pueblo itself. The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Taos Pueblo than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Taos Pueblo fell from 329 in 2013 to 138 in 2023, −58%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Most Taos Pueblo residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
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 210 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Taos Pueblo’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Taos Pueblo is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Taos Pueblo’s grade.
Unemployment (21.7%) is left out: Taos Pueblo’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, Taos Pueblo stays D−.
47% of working residents work in Taos
Where Taos Pueblo clocks in
47% 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.
Jobs in Taos Pueblo: what the 138 are
138 jobs are based in Taos Pueblo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Taos Pueblo, 2013 → 2023: 329 → 138. 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 Taos Pueblo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Taos Pueblo
About 26% 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.
Who commutes out of Taos Pueblo, and who commutes in
On a workday 203 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 131 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.
0.66 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.
From Taos Pueblo, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Taos Pueblo workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 359 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.
Driving is how Taos Pueblo gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Taos Pueblo is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 372 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). 5.2% of Taos Pueblo households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Taos Pueblo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Taos Pueblo sits among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 483 | Santa Ana Pueblo NM | 1,026 | $86K | 5.5% | 2.9% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 524 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 751 | Sandia Knolls NM | 1,445 | $92K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,717 | Fort Belknap Agency MT | 1,227 | $46K | 29.4% | 38.8% | 3% | D− |
| 3,718 | Black Rock NM | 1,125 | $46K | 38.9% | 1.7% | 32% | D− |
| 3,719 | Taos Pueblo NM | 1,129 | $39K | 49.1% | 21.7% | 3% | D− |
| 3,720 | Frisco City AL | 1,089 | $36K | 26.8% | 21.4% | 2% | D− |
| 3,721 | Reform AL | 1,432 | $34K | 43.8% | 7.9% | 8% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Taos Pueblo, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
49% of Taos Pueblo works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Taos (47%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Taos Pueblo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taos Pueblo | – | D− | C | 18 min | $39,375 |
| Arroyo Seco | 2% | C | D | 23 min | $62,348 |
| Taos | 47% | D | A | 26 min | $47,304 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Taos Pueblo’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Taos Pueblo: questions
What is the median household income in Taos Pueblo?
$39,375 (±$11,471) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Taos Pueblo?
49.1%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Taos Pueblo?
18 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 Taos Pueblo work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Taos (47%, 6 mi), Albuquerque (8%, 112 mi), Taos Ski Valley (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Taos Pueblo walkable?
Taos Pueblo is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Taos Pueblo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Taos Pueblo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Taos Pueblo
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.