Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Bowie are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Bowie D; getting around on foot earns it C+. Poverty touches 16.7% of residents, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. 5% of workers work from home, next to 14% for Texas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bowie and work: the main findings
Bowie’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Bowie is Fort Worth, 61 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (235) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
45% 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 ↓
Bowie workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 35 minutes each way, against 27 across Texas. Over a year that’s about 268 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical 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.
Why Bowie gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bowie is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #579 of 642 in Texas. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bowie’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bowie could be anywhere from D− to B−.
How far Bowie goes to work
About 45% 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.
Time on the road from Bowie: about 35 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bowie workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,036 commuters (the 5% 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 Bowie: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 2,196 residents head out to work, 502 work right here, and 1,558 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,500 people are in Bowie on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.76 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.
9% of working residents work in Fort Worth
Where Bowie clocks in
9% 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.
What Bowie’s employers do
2,060 jobs are based in Bowie.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bowie, 2013 → 2023: 2,586 → 2,060. 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 Bowie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Bowie, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bowie is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns, #338 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% 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 2,148 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). 8.5% of Bowie households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bowie’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bowie and other U.S. towns of 4,300 to 8,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Garden Ridge TX | 4,371 | $177K | 0.4% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,063 | Livingston TX | 5,386 | $49K | 27.5% | 4.3% | 18% | D |
| 3,064 | Walnut Ridge AR | 5,478 | $45K | 25.6% | 5.0% | 24% | D |
| 3,065 | Bowie TX | 6,113 | $57K | 16.7% | 6.2% | 19% | D |
| 3,066 | Paoli Township IN | 5,945 | $49K | 19.6% | 4.7% | 17% | D |
| 3,067 | York Township OH | 6,710 | $56K | 14.7% | 8.4% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,370 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Bowie, 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 Bowie: questions
What is the median household income in Bowie?
$57,488 (±$6,909) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bowie?
16.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bowie?
35 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bowie work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Worth (9%, 61 mi), Decatur (5%, 27 mi), Wichita Falls (4%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bowie walkable?
Bowie is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bowie without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bowie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bowie
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.