Work and commuting in Forest Heights
Forest Heights grades C for jobs and income and D− for walkability. For 5% of workers, the job is at home, next to 14% for Texas as a whole. Only 3% work in Forest Heights itself; outside it, Orange draws the most (18%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Forest Heights and work: the main findings
Forest Heights makes and builds things
79% of the jobs based in Forest Heights are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Forest Heights residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Forest Heights pay better than its residents’ jobs
97% of the jobs based in Forest Heights pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 57% of the jobs Forest Heights residents hold. 98% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Forest Heights. The jobs ↓
Forest Heights and Orange trade workers both ways
Orange is the top workplace for Forest Heights residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Forest Heights come from (18% of its jobs). 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; with 495 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Forest Heights
On income, poverty and job access, Forest Heights is better than 32% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Forest Heights’ grade up ($81,429, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (24.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (3.2%) is left out: Forest Heights’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Forest Heights could be anywhere from D to B+.
Making and building: 79% of jobs based in Forest Heights
680 jobs are based in Forest Heights.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Heights, 2013 → 2023: 153 → 680. 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 Forest Heights’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The places Forest Heights commutes to
Where Forest Heights clocks in
18% of workers
14% 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.
In and out of Forest Heights on a workday
On a workday 482 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 667 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Forest Heights on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 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.
Commuting from Forest Heights: about 25 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Heights workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 674 commuters (the 5% 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 Forest Heights goes to work
About 31% 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.
Driving is how Forest Heights gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Forest Heights is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Forest Heights 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 707 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). 2.6% of Forest Heights households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forest Heights’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400, Forest Heights comes 3,084th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 24 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,082 | York Township OH | 1,585 | $81K | 18.7% | 3.6% | 1% | C |
| 3,083 | Cornplanter Township PA | 2,258 | $69K | 16.6% | 2.9% | 3% | C |
| 3,084 | Forest Heights TX | 1,795 | $81K | 24.0% | 3.2% | 3% | C |
| 3,085 | South Roxana IL | 1,849 | $60K | 22.3% | 5.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,086 | Franklin Township OH | 1,661 | $79K | 19.5% | 6.7% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Forest Heights, 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 Forest Heights: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Heights?
$81,429 (±$57,394) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Heights?
24.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Heights?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Heights work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Orange (18%, 8 mi), Beaumont (14%, 25 mi), Houston (7%, 102 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Forest Heights walkable?
Forest Heights is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Heights without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest Heights, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Heights
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.