Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Helotes top those of 92% of U.S. towns
21% of workers work from home, where Texas as a whole has 14%. 3.1% of residents are in poverty, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. The two grades for Helotes are A for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Helotes stands out on work
More than half of Helotes works in San Antonio
2,581 working residents, 60%, have their main job in San Antonio, 12 miles away across the town line. That’s 30 times as many as work in Helotes itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Helotes
70% of Helotes residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 37% of the jobs based in Helotes pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 98% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Helotes has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Helotes went from 1,595 in 2013 to 2,375 in 2023, +49%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
34% of the jobs based in Helotes are held by workers 29 or younger, against 20% of Helotes’ own working residents. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Helotes
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Helotes is better than 89% of U.S. towns, #92 of 642 in Texas. Household income holds Helotes’ grade up ($132,675, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.0%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Helotes could be anywhere from A− to A+.
60% of working residents work in San Antonio
Where Helotes clocks in
60% of workers
4% 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.
What Helotes’ employers do
2,375 jobs are based in Helotes.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Helotes, 2013 → 2023: 1,595 → 2,375. 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 Helotes’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Helotes, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,235 residents head out to work, 74 work right here, and 2,301 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,500 people are in Helotes on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.55 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.
About 26 minutes to work from Helotes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Helotes workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,556 commuters (the 21% 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 Helotes to work
About 17% 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.
For most of Helotes, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Helotes is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #95 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Helotes 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 4,512 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 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 43% 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). 2.0% of Helotes households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Helotes’ commuters take a bus or train.
Helotes is 480th of 2,878 U.S. towns of 7,000 to 14,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Lucas TX | 8,896 | $221K | 1.3% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 478 | Los Alamos NM | 13,317 | $141K | 4.1% | 0.8% | 77% | A |
| 479 | Piedmont OK | 9,427 | $104K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 8% | A |
| 480 | Helotes TX | 10,387 | $133K | 3.1% | 5.0% | 2% | A |
| 481 | Coventry CT | 12,446 | $108K | 5.1% | 3.0% | 7% | A |
| 482 | Upper Township NJ | 12,355 | $112K | 2.7% | 2.6% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | 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 Helotes, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Next door is work for 60% of Helotes
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Helotes workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helotes | – | A | B+ | 26 min | $132,675 |
| San Antonio | 60% | C+ | A | 25 min | $65,056 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to San Antonio. Darker towns draw more of Helotes’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 Helotes: questions
What is the median household income in Helotes?
$132,675 (±$11,784) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Helotes?
3.1%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Helotes?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Helotes work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Antonio (60%, 12 mi), Leon Valley (9%, 7 mi), Austin (4%, 74 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Helotes walkable?
Helotes is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Helotes without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Helotes, from the people who make the trip.
More of Helotes
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.