Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 3.0Blanco has lower unemployment (2.2%) than 82% of U.S. towns
The average commute, 27 minutes each way, matches the Texas norm. Jobs and income earn Blanco B−; getting around on foot earns it C. About one in seven work in Blanco itself; outside it, Austin draws the most (14%, 42 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Blanco apart
What’s behind Blanco’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Blanco is better than 51% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Blanco’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Blanco could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Blanco
About 28% 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.
Who commutes out of Blanco, and who commutes in
On a workday 620 residents head out to work, 122 work right here, and 976 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Blanco on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Out of Blanco to work: where people go
Where Blanco clocks in
14% of workers
5% 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.
The 1,098 jobs based in Blanco
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blanco, 2013 → 2023: 1,190 → 1,098. 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 Blanco’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Blanco
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blanco workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,004 commuters (the 12% 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.
Driving is how Blanco gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Blanco is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 1,136 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). 2.6% of Blanco households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blanco’s commuters take a bus or train.
Blanco is 2,042nd of 5,148 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| 23 | Shoreacres TX | 1,535 | $131K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,040 | Bethel VT | 1,887 | $76K | 8.2% | 1.8% | 14% | B− |
| 2,041 | Duquesne MO | 2,345 | $54K | 14.2% | 1.0% | 3% | B− |
| 2,042 | Blanco TX | 2,108 | $71K | 10.4% | 2.2% | 16% | B− |
| 2,043 | Marion WI | 2,091 | $84K | 6.3% | 6.1% | 2% | B− |
| 2,044 | Aristocrat Ranchettes CO | 1,747 | $84K | 16.1% | 11.9% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | 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 Blanco, 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 Blanco: questions
What is the median household income in Blanco?
$70,682 (±$19,804) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blanco?
10.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blanco?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blanco work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Austin (14%, 42 mi), San Antonio (5%, 44 mi), Johnson City (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blanco walkable?
Blanco is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blanco without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Blanco, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blanco
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.