Photo: Adavyd · CC BY-SA 4.0Brenham has lower household incomes than 66% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 18.9%, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. Jobs and income earn Brenham C+; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in three work in Brenham; the top destination outside it is Houston (13%, 66 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Brenham: the gist
Brenham’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Brenham is Houston, 66 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (1,035) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Brenham are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
Brenham is where the jobs are
Brenham has 12,718 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 ↓
Brenham draws workers from far and wide
The 12,718 jobs in Brenham are filled from a wide area. Brenham’s own residents hold 22% and the ten next-biggest home towns 13%; the other 65% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
Where Brenham’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Brenham is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #376 of 642 in Texas. Unemployment holds Brenham’s grade up (3.5%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brenham could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Brenham
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.
Each way, about 18 minutes from Brenham
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brenham workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,303 commuters (the 8% 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.
Brenham on a workday afternoon
On a workday 5,137 residents head out to work, 2,837 work right here, and 9,881 people come in from elsewhere.
About 25,000 people are in Brenham on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
The towns that send workers to Brenham
Where Brenham clocks in
13% of workers
7% 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.
Inside Brenham’s 12,718 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brenham, 2013 → 2023: 12,290 → 12,718. 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 Brenham’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Brenham, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brenham is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #63 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 7,971 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). 9.0% of Brenham households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brenham’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 14,000 to 27,000, Brenham ranks 1,421st of 1,860 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Colleyville TX | 25,727 | $218K | 2.5% | 3.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Corinth TX | 25,297 | $121K | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Bellaire TX | 17,434 | $244K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,419 | Staunton VA | 26,801 | $66K | 12.4% | 5.3% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,420 | Oak Harbor WA | 24,083 | $76K | 8.3% | 5.4% | 23% | C+ |
| 1,421 | Brenham TX | 19,957 | $65K | 18.9% | 3.5% | 36% | C+ |
| 1,422 | Hays KS | 21,258 | $58K | 20.1% | 3.6% | 63% | C+ |
| 1,423 | Emporia KS | 24,137 | $53K | 17.8% | 2.0% | 60% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,860 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Brenham, 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 Brenham: questions
What is the median household income in Brenham?
$65,112 (±$9,188) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brenham?
18.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brenham?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brenham work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (13%, 66 mi), Austin (7%, 82 mi), Bryan (2%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brenham walkable?
Brenham is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brenham without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brenham, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brenham
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.