Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Cooper’s household incomes are lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, next to 14% for Texas as a whole. 23.4% of residents are in poverty, against 13.8% across Texas. The two grades for Cooper are D for jobs and income and C 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 Cooper
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Cooper than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Cooper fell from 752 in 2013 to 516 in 2023, −31%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Cooper pay little
26% of the jobs based in Cooper pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. 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; with 688 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Cooper: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Cooper’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,767, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Cooper’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, Cooper could be anywhere from D− to D.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Cooper
About 34% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Cooper
516 jobs are based in Cooper.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cooper, 2013 → 2023: 752 → 516. 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 Cooper’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Cooper for work, and who comes in
On a workday 597 residents head out to work, 91 work right here, and 425 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.
0.75 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
11% of working residents work in Sulphur Springs
Where Cooper clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
About 25 minutes to work from Cooper
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cooper workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 831 commuters (the 6% 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.
In Cooper, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cooper is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cooper 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 881 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). 9.8% of Cooper households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cooper’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800, and where Cooper sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 22 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| 23 | Serenada TX | 1,444 | $155K | 1.5% | 2.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,270 | Seneca MO | 2,343 | $46K | 21.4% | 0.8% | 10% | D |
| 5,271 | Willow Springs MO | 2,211 | $41K | 20.5% | 6.0% | 20% | D |
| 5,272 | Cooper TX | 2,049 | $44K | 23.4% | 2.7% | 13% | D |
| 5,273 | Whitney TX | 2,134 | $49K | 23.9% | 0.6% | 10% | D |
| 5,274 | Ramsey Township IL | 1,609 | $55K | 18.0% | 1.8% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Cooper, 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 Cooper: questions
What is the median household income in Cooper?
$43,767 (±$9,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cooper?
23.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cooper?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cooper work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sulphur Springs (11%, 16 mi), Paris (10%, 22 mi), Commerce (7%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cooper walkable?
Cooper is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cooper without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cooper, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cooper
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.