Photo: Zeality · CC BY 2.5Households in Taos earn less than those in 91% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 13.7% of residents, next to 17.8% for New Mexico as a whole. Taos grades D for jobs and income and A for walkability. About half stay in Taos for work; outside it, Albuquerque is the main destination (10%, 107 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Taos in brief
Taos’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Taos is Albuquerque, 107 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (224) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Taos is where the jobs are
Taos has 5,349 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 9,600 people are in town, 47% more than the 6,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Taos’ working residents have a job less than 2 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 26 minutes, longer than the New Mexico average of 24. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Taos workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Taos’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
The four measures behind Taos’ grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Taos is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #57 of 72 in New Mexico. The poverty rate holds Taos’ grade up; unemployment pulls it down (10.6%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Taos could be anywhere from D− to C.
Short hops and long hauls from Taos
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.
How many people are in Taos by day
On a workday 1,124 residents head out to work, 1,129 work right here, and 4,220 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,600 people are in Taos on a workday afternoon, 47% more than live here.
2.4 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Taos
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Taos workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,484 commuters (the 15% 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.
Inside Taos’ 5,349 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Taos, 2013 → 2023: 5,854 → 5,349. 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’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Taos: where workers come from
Where Taos clocks in
10% of workers
4% 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.
In Taos, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Taos is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #2 of 73 in New Mexico. Both inputs place Taos near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,933 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). 6.3% of Taos households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Taos’ commuters take a bus or train.
Where Taos sits among U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,800
| # | 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 549 | White Rock NM | 5,716 | $157K | 2.5% | 0.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 766 | Los Ranchos de Albuquerque NM | 5,790 | $73K | 8.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,240 | Eldorado at Santa Fe NM | 5,619 | $107K | 8.4% | 2.1% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,047 | Aberdeen MS | 4,799 | $33K | 28.2% | 5.7% | 21% | D |
| 3,048 | Bay Minette AL | 8,555 | $45K | 24.4% | 7.2% | 18% | D |
| 3,049 | Taos NM | 6,526 | $47K | 13.7% | 10.6% | 50% | D |
| 3,050 | Price UT | 8,368 | $53K | 17.7% | 7.4% | 33% | D |
| 3,051 | West Hattiesburg MS | 6,715 | $39K | 38.5% | 11.4% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,218 | 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 Taos, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
Work in the towns next to Taos
The biggest share goes to Ranchos de Taos (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Taos workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taos | – | D | A | 26 min | $47,304 |
| Ranchos de Taos | 2% | — | C− | 24 min | — |
| Taos Pueblo | 2% | D− | C | 18 min | $39,375 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Taos’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: questions
What is the median household income in Taos?
$47,304 (±$13,889) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Taos?
13.7%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Taos?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Taos work?
50% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albuquerque (10%, 107 mi), Taos Ski Valley (5%, 16 mi), Santa Fe (4%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Taos walkable?
Taos is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Taos without a car?
2% 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 Taos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Taos
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.