Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Keene works elsewhere
For jobs and income Keene is better than 36% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (B−). There are 1,293 jobs in Keene; 2,929 of its residents have a job. Measured by household income, Keene is behind 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Keene at work: what stands out
Income, poverty and work: Keene’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Keene’s grade up (ahead of 78% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($51,695, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Keene could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Near or far: the trip to work from Keene
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.
Keene on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,805 residents head out to work, 124 work right here, and 1,169 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,500 people are in Keene on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
17% of working residents work in Fort Worth
Where Keene clocks in
17% of workers
15% 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 Keene
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Keene, 2013 → 2023: 1,096 → 1,293. 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 Keene’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Keene
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Keene workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,750 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.
Getting around Keene: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,926 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). 4.1% of Keene households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Keene’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Keene is 2,221st among 3,164 U.S. towns of 5,000 to 9,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,219 | Air Force Academy CO | 6,727 | $69K | 18.7% | 4.6% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,220 | Memphis FL | 9,185 | $75K | 14.2% | 8.1% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,221 | Keene TX | 7,109 | $52K | 13.6% | 5.2% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,222 | Liberty Township OH | 6,700 | $64K | 20.0% | 6.8% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,223 | Hampton Township MI | 9,581 | $52K | 17.9% | 3.0% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,164 | 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 Keene, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
15% of Keene works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Cleburne. Darker towns draw more of Keene’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 Keene: questions
What is the median household income in Keene?
$51,695 (±$8,099) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Keene?
13.6%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Keene?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Keene work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Worth (17%, 27 mi), Cleburne (15%, 6 mi), Dallas (6%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Keene walkable?
Keene is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Keene without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Keene, from the people who make the trip.
More of Keene
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.