Photo: WhisperToMe · Public domainBellaire’s household incomes are among the highest in the country
Poverty touches 2.4% of residents, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. Household incomes here are among the highest in the country. Jobs and income earn Bellaire A+; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bellaire and work: the main findings
More than half of Bellaire works in Houston
5,370 working residents, 69%, have their main job in Houston, 7.1 miles away. That’s 14 times as many as work in Bellaire itself. The commute map ↓
Bellaire is where the jobs are
Bellaire has 14,497 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Most Bellaire residents work close to home
67% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
A lot of Bellaire works from home
25% of Bellaire workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Time on the road ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Bellaire
79% of Bellaire residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 58% of the jobs based in Bellaire pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 95% leave town for their job. 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.
Where Bellaire’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bellaire is better than 98% of U.S. towns, #28 of 642 in Texas. Household income is its strongest input ($244,015, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bellaire could be anywhere from A to A+.
The towns that send workers to Bellaire
Where Bellaire clocks in
69% of workers
1% 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.
A workday in Bellaire: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 7,385 residents head out to work, 386 work right here, and 14,111 people come in from elsewhere.
About 24,000 people are in Bellaire on a workday afternoon, 39% more than live here.
1.9 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.
How many miles Bellaire commutes
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.
The daily trip from Bellaire: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bellaire workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,952 commuters (the 25% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% 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.
The kinds of work in Bellaire
14,497 jobs are based in Bellaire.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bellaire, 2013 → 2023: 12,418 → 14,497. 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 Bellaire’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Bellaire is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.0% across Texas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,964 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 38% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 2.5% of Bellaire households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Bellaire’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bellaire places 54th of 2,103 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 12,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Lantana TX | 12,766 | $199K | 0.6% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Franklin Farm VA | 18,736 | $216K | 1.5% | 3.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 53 | Manhattan Township IL | 13,099 | $129K | 4.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| 54 | Bellaire TX | 17,434 | $244K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 5% | A+ |
| 55 | Verona WI | 16,821 | $120K | 1.4% | 1.6% | 21% | A+ |
| 56 | Concord Township PA | 18,477 | $132K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 79 | Rendon TX | 14,632 | $118K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,103 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Bellaire, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
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 Bellaire: questions
What is the median household income in Bellaire?
$244,015 (±$32,835) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bellaire?
2.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bellaire?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bellaire work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (69%, 7 mi), Sugar Land (2%, 13 mi), Austin (1%, 143 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bellaire walkable?
Bellaire is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 13.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bellaire without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 38% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bellaire, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bellaire
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.