Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 3.0Tonopah’s household incomes are lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income C−: better than 23% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B+: more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 33 minutes each way (Nevada 25, U.S. 26). About one in three work in Tonopah; the top destination outside it is Reno (5%, 174 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Tonopah, in brief
The biggest group of Tonopah’s workers comes from Pahrump
1,297 of the people who work in Tonopah live in Pahrump, 145 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Tonopah has far more jobs than workers
Tonopah has 2,303 jobs, 3.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,500 people are in town, 86% more than the 1,900 who live here. Day and night ↓
Jobs in Tonopah have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Tonopah went from 1,101 in 2013 to 2,303 in 2023, +109%. 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 668 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Tonopah’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Tonopah is better than 23% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Tonopah’s grade up (4.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Tonopah’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Tonopah could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Tonopah’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Tonopah clocks in
5% of workers
5% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Tonopah nearly doubles on a workday
On a workday 444 residents head out to work, 224 work right here, and 2,079 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Tonopah on a workday afternoon, 86% more than live here.
3.4 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
2,303 jobs are based in Tonopah. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Tonopah’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tonopah, 2013 → 2023: 1,101 → 2,303. 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 33 minutes each way, longer than most of Nevada
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tonopah workers work from home, vs 12% across Nevada. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 916 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Nevada: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Tonopah commutes less than 31 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 44% 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.
Most trips from Tonopah start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tonopah is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 25.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.6% across Nevada, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 954 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). 4.5% of Tonopah households have no vehicle (Nevada 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 21% of Tonopah’s commuters take a bus or train.
Tonopah is 4,065th of 5,921 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Tonopah, the top three, the last and three more from Nevada.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,207 | Osino NV | 1,341 | $93K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,442 | Kingsbury NV | 2,209 | $96K | 1.1% | 4.5% | 16% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,547 | Fallon Station NV | 1,399 | $67K | 1.2% | 0.0% | 0% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,063 | Belfast NY | 1,627 | $65K | 9.0% | 2.0% | 11% | C− |
| 4,064 | Clay Township OH | 1,516 | $71K | 11.7% | 7.2% | 1% | C− |
| 4,065 | Tonopah NV | 1,910 | $47K | 4.9% | 0.0% | 34% | C− |
| 4,066 | Newton AL | 1,652 | $60K | 15.0% | 3.0% | 1% | C− |
| 4,067 | Colstrip MT | 2,091 | $83K | 9.4% | 8.2% | 41% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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.
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 Tonopah: questions
What is the median household income in Tonopah?
$47,031 (±$23,835) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,260 across Nevada and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tonopah?
4.9%, against 12.4% across Nevada and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tonopah?
33 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Nevada and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tonopah work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Reno (5%, 174 mi), Paradise (5%, 180 mi), Las Vegas (3%, 167 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tonopah walkable?
Tonopah is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 25% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tonopah without a car?
21% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tonopah, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tonopah
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.