Photo: Txstateends · CC BY-SA 4.0Jacksonville has lower household incomes than 86% of U.S. towns
26.5% of residents are in poverty, against 13.8% across Texas. For jobs and income Jacksonville is better than 13% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (C+). 6% of workers have no commute at all; Texas has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Jacksonville
Jacksonville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Jacksonville is Tyler, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (719) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Jacksonville draws workers from far and wide
The 7,283 jobs in Jacksonville are filled from a wide area. Jacksonville’s own residents hold 26% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 60% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Jacksonville workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Jacksonville’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
How Jacksonville earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Jacksonville’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jacksonville could be anywhere from D to C.
Where in the region Jacksonville works
About 28% 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.
12% of working residents work in Tyler
Where Jacksonville clocks in
12% 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.
The kinds of work in Jacksonville
7,283 jobs are based in Jacksonville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jacksonville, 2013 → 2023: 8,514 → 7,283. 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 Jacksonville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Jacksonville
On a workday 3,951 residents head out to work, 1,887 work right here, and 5,396 people come in from elsewhere.
About 16,000 people are in Jacksonville on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 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.
From Jacksonville, about 24 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 Jacksonville workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,440 commuters (the 6% 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 Jacksonville, the car does most of the work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% 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 5,779 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). 11.8% of Jacksonville households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Jacksonville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Jacksonville sits among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lantana TX | 12,766 | $199K | 0.6% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Bellaire TX | 17,434 | $244K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,205 | East Cleveland OH | 13,229 | $22K | 40.7% | 18.4% | 4% | D |
| 2,206 | McKeesport PA | 16,907 | $34K | 32.0% | 11.5% | 12% | D |
| 2,207 | Jacksonville TX | 14,658 | $51K | 26.5% | 6.4% | 32% | D |
| 2,208 | Oswego NY | 17,024 | $53K | 20.6% | 8.1% | 35% | D |
| 2,209 | Fortuna CA | 12,003 | $62K | 18.2% | 7.0% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,362 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Jacksonville, 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 Jacksonville: questions
What is the median household income in Jacksonville?
$51,375 (±$5,504) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jacksonville?
26.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jacksonville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jacksonville work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tyler (12%, 25 mi), Houston (4%, 150 mi), Longview (3%, 49 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jacksonville walkable?
Jacksonville is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jacksonville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jacksonville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jacksonville
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.