Launch Complex 33 · Photo: NASA · Public domainWhite Sands has 3.9 jobs for every working resident: 785 people commute in to work
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, where New Mexico as a whole has 12%. White Sands has 799 jobs, and 207 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for White Sands are B for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in White Sands
White Sands has far more jobs than workers
White Sands has 799 jobs, 3.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
White Sands and Las Cruces trade workers both ways
Las Cruces is the top workplace for White Sands residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in White Sands come from (33% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The jobs in White Sands pay better than its residents’ jobs
82% of the jobs based in White Sands pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 49% of the jobs White Sands residents hold. 98% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside White Sands. 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; with 207 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How White Sands earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, White Sands is better than 65% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds White Sands’ grade up (1.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: White Sands’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, White Sands could be anywhere from B− to B+.
Who leaves White Sands for work, and who comes in
On a workday 193 residents head out to work and 14 work right here.
About 2,200 people are in White Sands on a workday afternoon, 37% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Who travels to work in White Sands, and from where
Where White Sands clocks in
27% of workers
18% 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.
Most jobs in White Sands are in services
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in White Sands, 2013 → 2023: 744 → 799. 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 White Sands’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 11 minutes in White Sands
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of White Sands workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,058 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.
How far White Sands goes to work
About 31% 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.
Driving is how White Sands gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, White Sands is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,091 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 2.4% of White Sands households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of White Sands’ commuters take a bus or train.
White Sands next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200: 1,425th of 6,161 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 669 | Picacho Hills NM | 2,002 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 860 | Tres Arroyos NM | 1,926 | $88K | 2.2% | 5.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,025 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,423 | Kaaawa HI | 1,328 | $132K | 11.0% | 0.9% | 0% | B+ |
| 1,424 | Dudley Township IN | 1,108 | $84K | 4.5% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,425 | White Sands NM | 1,609 | $90K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 7% | B |
| 1,426 | Cherry Branch NC | 1,684 | $104K | 1.4% | 0.4% | <1% | B |
| 1,427 | Ideal Township MN | 1,291 | $108K | 3.3% | 2.7% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 White Sands, 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.
- Two counts of out-of-state work. The Census survey asks workers where they work: 0% of White Sands workers work outside New Mexico. The job records count 21% at employers in other states. The records use the address the employer reports and skip the self-employed, so the two can differ.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in White Sands: questions
What is the median household income in White Sands?
$89,565 (±$16,043) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in White Sands?
1.9%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from White Sands?
11 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 White Sands work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Las Cruces (27%, 18 mi), El Paso (18%, 37 mi), Albuquerque (8%, 188 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is White Sands walkable?
White Sands is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around White Sands without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from White Sands, from the people who make the trip.
More of White Sands
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.