Households in Fabens have lower incomes than those in 94% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 28.3% of residents (Texas 13.8%). For jobs and income Fabens is better than 26% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (C−). Home is the office for 3% of workers, against 14% across Texas.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Fabens and work: the main findings
Jobs in Fabens have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Fabens went from 533 in 2013 to 1,313 in 2023, +146%. The jobs ↓
Nearly half of Fabens works in El Paso
750 working residents, 47%, have their main job in El Paso, 29 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Fabens itself. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Fabens workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Fabens’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
49% of the jobs in Fabens are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
A young workforce
33% of Fabens’ working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Fabens’ Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Fabens’ grade up (ahead of 66% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fabens could be anywhere from D to B−.
What the 1,313 jobs in Fabens are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fabens, 2013 → 2023: 533 → 1,313. 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 Fabens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
47% of working residents work in El Paso
Where Fabens clocks in
47% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Fabens
On a workday 1,460 residents head out to work, 123 work right here, and 1,190 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.83 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
A commute of about 30 minutes in Fabens
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fabens workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,091 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.
How far Fabens’ workers travel
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.
In Fabens, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 2,153 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.1% of Fabens households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fabens’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,753 U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,500, Fabens comes 2,876th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 8 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Garden Ridge TX | 4,371 | $177K | 0.4% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,874 | Forsyth Township MI | 6,291 | $62K | 10.4% | 4.1% | 25% | C |
| 2,875 | Gallipolis Township OH | 4,713 | $51K | 17.0% | 2.1% | 19% | C |
| 2,876 | Fabens TX | 4,818 | $43K | 28.3% | 3.7% | 8% | C |
| 2,877 | Sissonville WV | 3,593 | $67K | 23.4% | 5.3% | 4% | C |
| 2,878 | Sansom Park TX | 5,419 | $42K | 26.7% | 5.9% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,753 | 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 Fabens, 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 Fabens: questions
What is the median household income in Fabens?
$42,533 (±$21,001) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fabens?
28.3%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fabens?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fabens work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are El Paso (47%, 29 mi), Horizon City (4%, 12 mi), Socorro (3%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fabens walkable?
Fabens is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fabens without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fabens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fabens
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.