Bells has higher unemployment (7.8%) than 87% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Bells is ahead of 70% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Bells C+; getting around on foot earns it D. Only 5% stay in Bells for work; outside it, Sherman is the main destination (20%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Bells: the gist
How Bells earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bells is better than 37% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Bells’ grade up ($92,075, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bells could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Bells
About 32% 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.
In and out of Bells on a workday
On a workday 586 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 348 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Bells on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.61 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Where people from Bells work
Where Bells clocks in
20% of workers
13% 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 Bells, services account for most jobs
378 jobs are based in Bells.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bells, 2013 → 2023: 291 → 378. 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 Bells’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Bells: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bells workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,010 commuters (the 13% 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.
In Bells, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bells is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 1,163 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). 5.4% of Bells households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bells’ commuters take a bus or train.
Bells next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100: 2,924th of 5,794 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 28 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,922 | Millbourne PA | 1,210 | $54K | 24.3% | 3.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,923 | North Apollo PA | 1,212 | $67K | 15.7% | 1.7% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,924 | Bells TX | 1,525 | $92K | 11.9% | 7.8% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,925 | Anahuac TX | 2,023 | $78K | 17.6% | 4.5% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,926 | Port Edwards WI | 1,761 | $76K | 12.5% | 3.2% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Bells, 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 Bells: questions
What is the median household income in Bells?
$92,075 (±$15,469) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bells?
11.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bells?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bells work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sherman (20%, 12 mi), Denison (13%, 14 mi), Dallas (5%, 60 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bells walkable?
Bells is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bells without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bells, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bells
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.