Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Buffalo earn less than those in 93% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 3% of workers; Texas has 14%. The poverty rate is 18.4%, against 13.8% across Texas. Buffalo grades D− for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Buffalo
A big share show a job far from home
61% 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 ↓
Buffalo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Buffalo is Houston, 122 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (75) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Buffalo is where the jobs are
Buffalo has 1,240 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 615 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Buffalo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Buffalo is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Buffalo’s grade.
Unemployment (7.6%) is left out: Buffalo’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, Buffalo could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Buffalo
About 61% 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.
How a workday changes Buffalo
On a workday 521 residents head out to work, 94 work right here, and 1,146 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Buffalo on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
2.0 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 daily trip into Buffalo
Where Buffalo clocks in
12% of workers
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.
Goods, not services: 29% of the jobs in Buffalo
1,240 jobs are based in Buffalo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buffalo, 2013 → 2023: 1,456 → 1,240. 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 Buffalo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Buffalo
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buffalo workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 626 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.
Getting around Buffalo: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Buffalo is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 646 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). 1.6% of Buffalo households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Buffalo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Buffalo sits among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 25 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,473 | Loving NM | 1,391 | $44K | 20.1% | 16.2% | 9% | D− |
| 5,474 | Robbins NC | 1,305 | $53K | 22.1% | 0.7% | 4% | D− |
| 5,475 | Buffalo TX | 1,906 | $45K | 18.4% | 7.6% | 15% | D− |
| 5,476 | Park Falls WI | 2,359 | $55K | 21.9% | 1.1% | 38% | D− |
| 5,477 | Lake Village AR | 1,833 | $41K | 18.8% | 10.5% | 35% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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 Buffalo, 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 Buffalo: questions
What is the median household income in Buffalo?
$45,202 (±$16,145) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buffalo?
18.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buffalo?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buffalo work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (12%, 122 mi), Austin (5%, 128 mi), Centerville (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Buffalo walkable?
Buffalo is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buffalo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buffalo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buffalo
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.