Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Hico’s household incomes are lower than in 62% of U.S. towns
Hico grades C− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. 11.5% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. About one in seven work in Hico itself; outside it, Stephenville draws the most (9%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Hico in brief
A big share show a job far from home
39% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Hico
50% of Hico residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 27% of the jobs based in Hico pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 84% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Hico pay little
27% of the jobs based in Hico pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 30% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. 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; with 519 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Hico gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Hico is better than 23% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Hico’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.6%) is left out: Hico’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Hico could be anywhere from D− to B.
The distance from Hico to work
About 39% 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 Hico’s employers do
395 jobs are based in Hico.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hico, 2013 → 2023: 321 → 395. 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 Hico’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Hico, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 438 residents head out to work, 81 work right here, and 314 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 (0.76 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.
The places Hico commutes to
Where Hico clocks in
6% 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.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Hico
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hico workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 585 commuters (the 8% 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.
In Hico, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hico is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.2% of 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 633 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). 11.0% of Hico households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hico’s commuters take a bus or train.
Hico next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000: 4,120th of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 34 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,118 | Ashland Township PA | 1,092 | $79K | 16.4% | 0.6% | <1% | C− |
| 4,119 | St. John KS | 1,200 | $74K | 12.1% | 1.9% | 20% | C− |
| 4,120 | Hico TX | 1,496 | $68K | 11.5% | 2.6% | 16% | C− |
| 4,121 | Denmark ME | 1,253 | $64K | 8.9% | 2.7% | 5% | C− |
| 4,122 | Del Rey CA | 1,654 | $57K | 34.4% | 8.7% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Hico, 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 Hico: questions
What is the median household income in Hico?
$67,500 (±$30,625) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hico?
11.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hico?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hico work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stephenville (9%, 19 mi), Austin (6%, 118 mi), Hamilton (4%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hico walkable?
Hico is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hico 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 Hico, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hico
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.