Households in Cactus have lower incomes than those in 92% of U.S. towns
0% of workers work from home; Texas has 14%. Below the poverty line: 20.9% of residents, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. For jobs and income Cactus is better than 17% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Cactus, in brief
Cactus has far more jobs than workers
Cactus has 4,020 jobs, 4.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 6,300 people are in town, 98% more than the 3,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Cactus makes and builds things
86% of the jobs based in Cactus are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Cactus residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 63%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Cactus are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 100 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 925 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Cactus gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Unemployment holds Cactus’ grade up (2.9%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($45,346, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cactus could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How a workday changes Cactus
On a workday 460 residents head out to work, 465 work right here, and 3,555 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,300 people are in Cactus on a workday afternoon, 98% more than live here.
4.3 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.
Goods jobs make up 86% of work in Cactus
4,020 jobs are based in Cactus.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cactus, 2013 → 2023: 107 → 4,020. 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 Cactus’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 14 minutes in Cactus
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cactus workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,381 commuters (the 0% 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 towns that send workers to Cactus
Where Cactus clocks in
8% of workers
6% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cactus
About 30% 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.
In Cactus, the car does most of the work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 4.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,381 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). 26.4% of Cactus households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Cactus’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Cactus is 3,859th of 4,698 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,857 | Seth Ward TX | 2,205 | $54K | 24.7% | 3.8% | <1% | C− |
| 3,858 | Camden TN | 3,690 | $55K | 19.8% | 4.4% | 24% | C− |
| 3,859 | Cactus TX | 3,165 | $45K | 20.9% | 2.9% | 50% | C− |
| 3,860 | North Canaan CT | 3,231 | $72K | 13.4% | 8.6% | 28% | C− |
| 3,861 | Heidelberg TX | 2,215 | $34K | 13.5% | 27.5% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | 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 Cactus, 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 Cactus: questions
What is the median household income in Cactus?
$45,346 (±$10,256) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cactus?
20.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cactus?
14 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cactus work?
50% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dumas (8%, 13 mi), Amarillo (6%, 59 mi), Lubbock (2%, 172 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cactus walkable?
Cactus is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.1 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cactus without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 26% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cactus, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cactus
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.