Photo: Charles Henry · CC BY 2.0Friona has 0.6 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Friona has 909 jobs; 1,584 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Friona is better than 35% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (C+). 0% of workers have no commute at all, next to 14% for Texas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Friona stands out on work
Commutes from Friona are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Friona workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
Why Friona gets the Jobs & income grade it does
The poverty rate holds Friona’s grade up (8.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Friona could be anywhere from D to B+.
How long Friona spends getting to work: about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Friona workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,801 commuters (the 0% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Friona
On a workday 1,273 residents head out to work, 311 work right here, and 598 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,400 people are in Friona on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer 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.
6% of working residents work in Amarillo
Where Friona clocks in
6% of workers
2% 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.
Jobs in Friona: what the 909 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Friona, 2013 → 2023: 1,039 → 909. 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 Friona’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Friona commutes less than 4 miles
About 26% 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.
Most trips from Friona start in a car
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 1,801 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). 3.6% of Friona households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Friona’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,800 to 5,500, Friona ranks 2,888th of 4,283 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| 4 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,886 | Bayfield CO | 2,974 | $93K | 8.4% | 6.5% | 18% | C |
| 2,887 | Pocola OK | 4,660 | $51K | 17.4% | 2.9% | 9% | C |
| 2,888 | Friona TX | 4,051 | $67K | 8.9% | 4.8% | 20% | C |
| 2,889 | Gillespie IL | 3,083 | $83K | 17.1% | 4.8% | 9% | C |
| 2,890 | Clayton NY | 4,539 | $90K | 12.8% | 4.8% | 24% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,283 | 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 Friona, 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 Friona: questions
What is the median household income in Friona?
$66,801 (±$4,627) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Friona?
8.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Friona?
14 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Friona work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Amarillo (6%, 64 mi), Hereford (2%, 22 mi), Lubbock (2%, 88 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Friona walkable?
Friona is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Friona without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Friona, from the people who make the trip.
More of Friona
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.