Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0Decatur has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 6,287 people commute in to work
There are 6,944 jobs in Decatur for 3,159 working residents. Jobs and income earn Decatur B+; getting around on foot earns it C+. About one in five work in Decatur; the top destination outside it is Fort Worth (11%, 34 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Decatur, in brief
Decatur is where the jobs are
Decatur has 6,944 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 13,000 people are in town, 42% more than the 9,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Decatur draws workers from far and wide
The 6,944 jobs in Decatur are filled from a wide area. Decatur’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 20%; the other 71% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Decatur’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Decatur is Fort Worth, 34 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (356) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The biggest group of Decatur’s workers comes from Fort Worth
433 of the people who work in Decatur live in Fort Worth, 34 miles away, more than from any other town. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Decatur’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Decatur is better than 70% of U.S. towns, #193 of 642 in Texas. Unemployment holds Decatur’s grade up (2.5%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($73,179, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Decatur could be anywhere from B− to A.
Who leaves Decatur for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,502 residents head out to work and 657 work right here.
About 13,000 people are in Decatur on a workday afternoon, 42% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Decatur’s workforce comes from
Where Decatur clocks in
11% of workers
5% 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.
How far it is to work from Decatur
About 18% 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 kinds of work in Decatur
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Decatur, 2013 → 2023: 6,228 → 6,944. 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 Decatur’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Decatur: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Decatur workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,117 commuters (the 9% 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 Decatur, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Decatur is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns, #350 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below 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 3,423 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). 6.4% of Decatur households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Decatur’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,891 U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,200, Decatur comes 1,102nd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Oak Point TX | 6,909 | $126K | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,100 | Bridge City TX | 9,645 | $89K | 8.3% | 2.9% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,101 | Fairview TX | 10,913 | $109K | 14.8% | 4.4% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,102 | Decatur TX | 9,029 | $73K | 8.0% | 2.5% | 21% | B+ |
| 1,103 | Pewaukee WI | 8,216 | $62K | 7.3% | 3.0% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,104 | Rib Mountain WI | 7,280 | $94K | 3.6% | 5.4% | 7% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,891 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Decatur, 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 Decatur: questions
What is the median household income in Decatur?
$73,179 (±$7,835) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Decatur?
8.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Decatur?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Decatur work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Worth (11%, 34 mi), Denton (5%, 26 mi), Dallas (3%, 56 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Decatur walkable?
Decatur is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Decatur without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Decatur, from the people who make the trip.
More of Decatur
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.