Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Gladewater trail those of 76% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, against 14% across Texas. 22.5% of residents live below the poverty line, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. For jobs and income Gladewater is better than 26% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Gladewater, in brief
Where Gladewater’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Gladewater’s grade up (ahead of 59% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gladewater could be anywhere from D to B.
25% of working residents work in Longview
Where Gladewater clocks in
25% of workers
7% 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.
Gladewater quiets down on a workday
On a workday 2,384 residents head out to work, 198 work right here, and 1,566 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,500 people are in Gladewater on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.68 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 2023, primary jobs.
What the 1,764 jobs in Gladewater are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gladewater, 2013 → 2023: 1,995 → 1,764. 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 Gladewater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Gladewater: about 24 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gladewater workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,261 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 Gladewater’s workers travel
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Gladewater, the car does most of the 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 2,388 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). 3.4% of Gladewater households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gladewater’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Gladewater ranks: 2,623rd of 3,349 U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| 4 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,621 | Chickasaw AL | 6,166 | $47K | 28.0% | 4.6% | 3% | C |
| 2,622 | Williams CA | 5,529 | $91K | 9.3% | 17.2% | 18% | C |
| 2,623 | Gladewater TX | 6,306 | $59K | 22.5% | 5.0% | 8% | C |
| 2,624 | Deerpark NY | 7,433 | $73K | 10.2% | 8.4% | 13% | C |
| 2,625 | Kathleen FL | 7,201 | $57K | 31.8% | 4.5% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,349 | 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 Gladewater, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Around Gladewater: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gladewater workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gladewater | – | C | C− | 24 min | $58,810 |
| Clarksville City | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Warren City | under 2% | — | — | 21 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Clarksville City and Warren City: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Gladewater’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Gladewater: questions
What is the median household income in Gladewater?
$58,810 (±$13,540) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gladewater?
22.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gladewater?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gladewater work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Longview (25%, 11 mi), Tyler (7%, 26 mi), Kilgore (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gladewater walkable?
Gladewater 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 Gladewater 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 Gladewater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gladewater
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.