Laredo draws about two in three of El Cenizo’s working residents
Household incomes here are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn El Cenizo D; getting around on foot earns it D−. 1% of workers have no commute at all, next to 14% for Texas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in El Cenizo
El Cenizo is a place people come home to
There are 4 jobs based in El Cenizo, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday El Cenizo has about 1,700 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of El Cenizo workers earn over $40,000 a year
35% of El Cenizo’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 23% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 759 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How El Cenizo earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, El Cenizo is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds El Cenizo’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (32.9%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (5.9%) is left out: El Cenizo’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, El Cenizo could be anywhere from D− to D.
Where El Cenizo goes to work
Where El Cenizo clocks in
70% of workers
4% 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.
Who works in El Cenizo, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 759 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 4 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in El Cenizo on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than live here.
0.01 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 2024, primary jobs.
Jobs in El Cenizo: what the 4 are
4 jobs are based in El Cenizo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in El Cenizo, 2014 → 2024: 4 → 4. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs El Cenizo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 36 minutes to work from El Cenizo
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of El Cenizo workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 798 commuters (the 1% 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.
How many miles El Cenizo commutes
About 28% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of El Cenizo commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, El Cenizo is near the bottom of U.S. towns. Both inputs place El Cenizo 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 807 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). 7.9% of El Cenizo households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of El Cenizo’s commuters take a bus or train.
El Cenizo next to U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,830 | Bethel OH | 2,708 | $44K | 27.5% | 9.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,831 | Masontown PA | 3,100 | $54K | 31.7% | 12.6% | 3% | D |
| 4,832 | El Cenizo TX | 2,457 | $49K | 32.9% | 5.9% | 0% | D |
| 4,833 | Fairplains NC | 1,803 | $39K | 36.3% | 12.3% | 1% | D |
| 4,834 | Las Lomas TX | 2,154 | $25K | 37.0% | 14.0% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 El Cenizo, 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 2024, 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 El Cenizo: questions
What is the median household income in El Cenizo?
$48,897 (±$8,898) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in El Cenizo?
32.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from El Cenizo?
36 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in El Cenizo work?
0% work in town.
Is El Cenizo walkable?
El Cenizo is near the bottom of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 1.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around El Cenizo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from El Cenizo, from the people who make the trip.
More of El Cenizo
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.