Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0About half of Vaughn’s working residents commute to Santa Rosa
Working residents average 19 minutes each way (New Mexico 24, U.S. 26). Only 4% work in Vaughn; the top destination outside it is Santa Rosa (45%, 38 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 80 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 81 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 (1.01 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.
45% of working residents work in Santa Rosa
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Vaughn clocks in
45% of workers
7% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 84 jobs in Vaughn are
84 jobs are based in Vaughn. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Vaughn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vaughn, 2013 → 2023: 60 → 84. 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.
About 19 minutes each way, quicker than most of New Mexico
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vaughn workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 196 commuters (the 2% 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 Vaughn commutes less than 42 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 42% 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.
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 Vaughn: questions
What is the median household income in Vaughn?
$29,135 (±$20,013) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vaughn?
51.9%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vaughn?
19 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vaughn work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Rosa (45%, 38 mi), Albuquerque (7%, 88 mi), Las Vegas (5%, 69 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Vaughn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vaughn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vaughn
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.