Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Hillsboro has lower household incomes than 80% of U.S. towns
3% of workers work from home (Texas 14%). Below the poverty line: 20.0% of residents, against 13.8% across Texas. For jobs and income Hillsboro is better than 25% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Hillsboro in brief
Hillsboro trades workers with the towns around it
Hillsboro has about as many jobs (4,663) as working residents (4,047), but they are mostly different people: 3,231 residents leave for work each day while 3,847 people come in. Only 17% of the jobs in Hillsboro are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Hillsboro’s commute
The biggest draw, Dallas, gets only 7% of working residents, and 51% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Hillsboro residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
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 ↓
Hillsboro makes and builds things
39% of the jobs based in Hillsboro are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Hillsboro residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Few Hillsboro workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Hillsboro’s grade explained
Unemployment holds Hillsboro’s grade up (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hillsboro could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who works in Hillsboro, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,231 residents head out to work, 816 work right here, and 3,847 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 (1.15 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
7% of working residents work in Dallas
Where Hillsboro clocks in
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.
The commute from Hillsboro, by distance
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Hillsboro works in goods: 39% of its jobs
4,663 jobs are based in Hillsboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hillsboro, 2014 → 2024: 4,137 → 4,663. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Hillsboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Hillsboro, about 23 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hillsboro workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,324 commuters (the 3% 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.
Few in Hillsboro walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.7% 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 3,435 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 Hillsboro households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hillsboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,354th of 2,891: where Hillsboro ranks among U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Oak Point TX | 6,909 | $126K | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,352 | Moundsville WV | 7,659 | $49K | 22.5% | 3.2% | 18% | C |
| 2,353 | Sealy TX | 7,937 | $57K | 21.4% | 5.4% | 12% | C |
| 2,354 | Hillsboro TX | 9,036 | $56K | 20.0% | 4.2% | 20% | C |
| 2,355 | Waupaca WI | 6,352 | $53K | 11.5% | 5.6% | 31% | C |
| 2,356 | St. Johnsbury VT | 7,354 | $58K | 16.8% | 3.3% | 38% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,891 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Hillsboro, 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 2024, 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 Hillsboro: questions
What is the median household income in Hillsboro?
$56,083 (±$7,109) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hillsboro?
20.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hillsboro?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hillsboro work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dallas (7%, 58 mi), Waco (5%, 31 mi), Fort Worth (5%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Hillsboro walkable?
Hillsboro is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hillsboro 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 Hillsboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hillsboro
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.