Most of Ben Bolt commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
7% of workers work from home, where Texas as a whole has 14%. There are 201 jobs in Ben Bolt, and 564 of its residents work somewhere. Ben Bolt grades C− 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
The commute and the jobs: Ben Bolt in brief
Ben Bolt and Alice trade workers both ways
Alice is the top workplace for Ben Bolt residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Ben Bolt come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Ben Bolt are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
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 564 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Ben Bolt’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ben Bolt is better than 18% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ben Bolt’s grade.
Unemployment (7.5%) is left out: Ben Bolt’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, Ben Bolt could be anywhere from D to B.
32% of working residents work in Alice
Where Ben Bolt clocks in
12% of workers
4% 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.
How many miles Ben Bolt commutes
About 36% 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.
About 22 minutes each way for Ben Bolt’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ben Bolt workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 778 commuters (the 7% 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.
A workday in Ben Bolt: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 555 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 192 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Ben Bolt on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer 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.
What Ben Bolt’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ben Bolt, 2013 → 2023: 105 → 201. 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 Ben Bolt’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Ben Bolt gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ben Bolt is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 3.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 835 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). 2.3% of Ben Bolt households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ben Bolt’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Ben Bolt is 4,138th among 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| 24 | Shoreacres TX | 1,535 | $131K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,136 | Troy Township OH | 2,444 | $56K | 10.3% | 6.1% | 4% | C− |
| 4,137 | Kelly Ridge CA | 2,825 | $55K | 12.3% | 5.8% | 2% | C− |
| 4,138 | Ben Bolt TX | 2,152 | $62K | 16.3% | 7.5% | 2% | C− |
| 4,139 | Centerville IN | 2,742 | $50K | 14.2% | 7.4% | 6% | C− |
| 4,140 | Thompson Falls MT | 1,543 | $46K | 6.5% | 0.0% | 25% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Ben Bolt, 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 Ben Bolt: questions
What is the median household income in Ben Bolt?
$61,741 (±$14,908) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ben Bolt?
16.3%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ben Bolt?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ben Bolt work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Alice (32%, 6 mi), Corpus Christi (12%, 57 mi), San Antonio (4%, 127 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ben Bolt walkable?
Ben Bolt is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 3.9 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ben Bolt without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ben Bolt, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ben Bolt
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.