Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Ben Wheeler draws 434 commuters a day, with 2.4 jobs for every working resident
Ben Wheeler has 437 jobs, and 184 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Ben Wheeler A−; getting around on foot earns it D−. Measured by household income, Ben Wheeler is ahead of 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What’s behind Ben Wheeler’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ben Wheeler is better than 80% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ben Wheeler’s grade up (3.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 32% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Ben Wheeler’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 Wheeler could be anywhere from C+ to A.
In and out of Ben Wheeler on a workday
On a workday 181 residents head out to work and 3 work right here.
About 2,000 people are in Ben Wheeler on a workday afternoon, 14% 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.
Commuting in to Ben Wheeler: where workers come from
Where Ben Wheeler clocks in
16% of workers
7% 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 place that makes things: 80% of Ben Wheeler’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ben Wheeler, 2013 → 2023: 77 → 437. 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 Wheeler’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Ben Wheeler takes about 61 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 19.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ben Wheeler workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 522 commuters (the 8% 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.
Half of Ben Wheeler commutes less than 26 miles
About 39% 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.
Most of Ben Wheeler commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ben Wheeler is more walkable than 3% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ben Wheeler near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 568 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). 0.0% of Ben Wheeler households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ben Wheeler’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ben Wheeler is 675th of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 24 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 673 | Van Buren Township OH | 2,119 | $105K | 7.8% | 0.6% | 1% | A− |
| 674 | Descanso CA | 1,590 | $110K | 3.7% | 0.9% | 2% | A− |
| 675 | Ben Wheeler TX | 1,792 | $121K | 3.6% | 0.0% | 2% | A− |
| 676 | Fontana-on-Geneva Lake WI | 1,886 | $107K | 7.5% | 3.3% | 4% | A− |
| 677 | White River Township IN | 2,340 | $82K | 3.9% | 3.4% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | 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 Ben Wheeler, 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 Wheeler: questions
What is the median household income in Ben Wheeler?
$120,523 (±$57,999) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ben Wheeler?
3.6%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ben Wheeler?
61 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ben Wheeler work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tyler (16%, 25 mi), Van (7%, 6 mi), Athens (7%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ben Wheeler walkable?
Ben Wheeler is more walkable than 3% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.9 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ben Wheeler without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ben Wheeler, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ben Wheeler
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.