Photo: Walter Curran Mendenhall · Public domainMaking a living in Grandfalls
Commuters spend 49 minutes getting to work on average, where Texas has 27 and the U.S. 26. Home is the office for 4% of workers (Texas 14%). Hardly any work in Grandfalls; the top destination outside it is Monahans (26%, 27 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 154 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 148 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 (0.96 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.
Out of Grandfalls to work: where people go
Where Grandfalls clocks in
26% of workers
10% of workers
6% 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.
31% of the jobs in Grandfalls make or build things
149 jobs are based in Grandfalls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grandfalls, 2013 → 2023: 79 → 149. 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 Grandfalls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Grandfalls: about 49 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 15.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grandfalls workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 88 commuters (the 4% 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 distance from Grandfalls to work
About 36% 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.
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 Grandfalls: questions
What is the median household income in Grandfalls?
$33,125 (±$25,449) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grandfalls?
22.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grandfalls?
49 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grandfalls work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monahans (26%, 27 mi), Odessa (10%, 48 mi), Midland (6%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Grandfalls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Grandfalls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grandfalls
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.