Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Hempstead has 0.6 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
There are 1,387 jobs in Hempstead, against 2,462 working residents. For jobs and income Hempstead is better than 44% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (C−). Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers, where Texas as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Hempstead apart on work
Few Hempstead workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
28% of Hempstead works in Houston
693 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Houston, 47 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Hempstead itself. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Hempstead
Unemployment holds Hempstead’s grade up (2.4%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.6%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hempstead could be anywhere from C to B.
About 30 minutes each way, longer than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hempstead workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,656 commuters (the 1% 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.
28% of working residents work in Houston
Where Hempstead clocks in
28% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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.
Hempstead by day and by night
On a workday 2,251 residents head out to work, 211 work right here, and 1,176 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,100 people are in Hempstead on a workday afternoon, 15% 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.
What Hempstead’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hempstead, 2013 → 2023: 1,358 → 1,387. 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 Hempstead’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Hempstead goes to work
About 21% 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 Hempstead, most people drive to 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 2,679 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). 9.2% of Hempstead households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hempstead’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Hempstead ranks: 2,031st of 3,205 U.S. towns of 5,000 to 9,700
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,029 | Laughery Township IN | 5,160 | $60K | 15.9% | 1.6% | 25% | C+ |
| 2,030 | Helena Valley Southeast MT | 9,108 | $74K | 8.3% | 4.9% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,031 | Hempstead TX | 7,194 | $60K | 22.6% | 2.4% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,032 | German Township OH | 7,579 | $74K | 8.0% | 8.7% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,033 | Mead WA | 6,893 | $77K | 7.4% | 8.6% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,205 | 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 Hempstead, 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 Hempstead: questions
What is the median household income in Hempstead?
$60,041 (±$7,024) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hempstead?
22.6%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hempstead?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hempstead work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (28%, 47 mi), Brenham (4%, 20 mi), Prairie View (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hempstead walkable?
Hempstead is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hempstead without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hempstead, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hempstead
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.