Photo: Leaflet · CC BY-SA 3.0Bovina’s household incomes are lower than in 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 2% of workers, against 14% across Texas. Poverty touches 16.4% of residents (Texas 13.8%). For jobs and income Bovina is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Bovina, in brief
Few Bovina workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Bovina 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 449 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Bovina’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bovina’s grade.
Unemployment (1.7%) is left out: Bovina’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bovina could be anywhere from D− to C.
From Bovina, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bovina workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 671 commuters (the 2% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Bovina
On a workday 431 residents head out to work, 18 work right here, and 122 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Bovina on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.31 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.
11% of working residents work in Farwell
Where Bovina clocks in
11% 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.
A place that makes things: 59% of Bovina’s jobs are in goods
140 jobs are based in Bovina.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bovina, 2013 → 2023: 214 → 140. 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 Bovina’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Bovina commutes
About 29% 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.
Few in Bovina walk, bike or ride to work
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 686 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 Bovina households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bovina’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, Bovina ranks 5,035th of 5,760 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 26 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,033 | Kingston OH | 1,236 | $40K | 26.3% | 2.5% | 1% | D |
| 5,034 | Smethport PA | 1,359 | $60K | 19.2% | 6.8% | 21% | D |
| 5,035 | Bovina TX | 1,677 | $49K | 16.4% | 1.7% | 4% | D |
| 5,036 | Claypool Hill VA | 1,610 | $45K | 15.5% | 1.4% | 5% | D |
| 5,037 | Fort Ashby WV | 1,283 | $45K | 16.6% | 0.0% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Bovina, 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 Bovina: questions
What is the median household income in Bovina?
$48,500 (±$16,592) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bovina?
16.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bovina?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bovina work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Farwell (11%, 12 mi), Lubbock (4%, 87 mi), Friona (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bovina walkable?
Bovina is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bovina 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 Bovina, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bovina
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.