Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Bonham has higher unemployment (9.4%) than 93% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Bonham; the top destination outside it is Dallas (10%, 64 miles). Jobs and income earn Bonham D; getting around on foot earns it B. Measured by household income, Bonham is behind 77% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Bonham stands out on work
Bonham’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Bonham is Dallas, 64 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (385) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Bonham trades workers with the towns around it
Bonham has about as many jobs (4,672) as working residents (3,986), but they are mostly different people: 3,112 residents leave for work each day while 3,798 people come in. Only 19% of the jobs in Bonham are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
46% 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 Bonham 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.
What’s behind Bonham’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Bonham’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bonham could be anywhere from D to C.
Where in the region Bonham works
About 46% 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 leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 3,112 residents head out to work, 874 work right here, and 3,798 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.17 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.
About 22 minutes to work from Bonham
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bonham workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,039 commuters (the 10% 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.
Where the trip to work from Bonham ends
Where Bonham clocks in
5% of workers
3% 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.
Jobs in Bonham: what the 4,672 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bonham, 2013 → 2023: 3,735 → 4,672. 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 Bonham’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Bonham is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bonham is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns, #243 of 642 in Texas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,387 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). 5.0% of Bonham households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Bonham’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Bonham sits among U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Lucas TX | 8,896 | $221K | 1.3% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Lantana TX | 12,766 | $199K | 0.6% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,379 | Sylacauga AL | 12,055 | $50K | 21.0% | 6.7% | 19% | D |
| 2,380 | Gaffney SC | 12,583 | $41K | 29.1% | 10.6% | 16% | D |
| 2,381 | Bonham TX | 11,263 | $58K | 21.7% | 9.4% | 22% | D |
| 2,382 | Carbondale PA | 8,731 | $48K | 26.4% | 8.4% | 15% | D |
| 2,383 | Seaford DE | 9,165 | $54K | 18.8% | 13.1% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Bonham, 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 Bonham: questions
What is the median household income in Bonham?
$57,681 (±$8,183) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bonham?
21.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bonham?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bonham work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dallas (10%, 64 mi), Sherman (5%, 25 mi), McKinney (3%, 38 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bonham walkable?
Bonham is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bonham without a car?
<1% 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 Bonham, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bonham
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.