Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Breckenridge trail those of 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 3% of workers, where Texas as a whole has 14%. 20.2% of residents are in poverty; Texas has 13.8%. The two grades for Breckenridge are D− for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Breckenridge, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
44% 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 ↓
Few Breckenridge workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Breckenridge makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Breckenridge are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Breckenridge residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 35%. The jobs ↓
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.
How Breckenridge earns its Jobs & income grade
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Breckenridge’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Breckenridge could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Half of Breckenridge commutes less than 26 miles
About 44% 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.
The daily trip from Breckenridge: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Breckenridge workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,152 commuters (the 3% 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 place that makes things: 36% of Breckenridge’s jobs are in goods
1,770 jobs are based in Breckenridge.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Breckenridge, 2013 → 2023: 1,678 → 1,770. 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 Breckenridge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 1,478 residents head out to work, 735 work right here, and 1,035 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 (0.80 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.
6% of working residents work in Abilene
Where Breckenridge clocks in
6% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Breckenridge
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Breckenridge is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #23 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Breckenridge 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 2,214 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). 14.5% of Breckenridge households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Breckenridge’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Breckenridge compares with U.S. towns of 3,600 to 6,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 7 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,560 | Titusville PA | 5,112 | $38K | 23.0% | 8.9% | 30% | D− |
| 3,561 | South Bay FL | 5,140 | $51K | 32.3% | 9.0% | 6% | D− |
| 3,562 | Breckenridge TX | 5,123 | $48K | 20.2% | 9.3% | 33% | D− |
| 3,563 | Point Pleasant WV | 3,869 | $38K | 24.4% | 8.1% | 21% | D− |
| 3,564 | East Porterville CA | 5,066 | $41K | 42.7% | 19.6% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,627 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Breckenridge, 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 Breckenridge: questions
What is the median household income in Breckenridge?
$48,000 (±$10,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Breckenridge?
20.2%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Breckenridge?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Breckenridge work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Abilene (6%, 52 mi), Fort Worth (2%, 91 mi), Weatherford (2%, 67 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Breckenridge walkable?
Breckenridge is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Breckenridge without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Breckenridge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Breckenridge
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.