Photo: 25or6to4 · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Lake Jackson (8.0%) than in 88% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 14% across Texas. Lake Jackson grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. About one in ten work in Lake Jackson; the top destination outside it is Houston (17%, 51 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Lake Jackson in brief
Lake Jackson’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Lake Jackson is Houston, 51 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (2,029) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Lake Jackson
66% of Lake Jackson residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 42% of the jobs based in Lake Jackson pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 89% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Lake Jackson are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
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’s behind Lake Jackson’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake Jackson is better than 43% of U.S. towns, #330 of 642 in Texas. Household income holds Lake Jackson’s grade up ($90,938, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake Jackson could be anywhere from C to B.
How far Lake Jackson goes to work
About 26% 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 work there is in Lake Jackson: 7,342 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Jackson, 2013 → 2023: 6,547 → 7,342. 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 Lake Jackson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Jackson workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 12,336 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.
Lake Jackson by day and by night
On a workday 10,891 residents head out to work, 1,401 work right here, and 5,941 people come in from elsewhere.
About 23,000 people are in Lake Jackson on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.60 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Lake Jackson: the destinations
Where Lake Jackson clocks in
17% of workers
12% 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 in Lake Jackson is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Jackson is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns, #514 of 642 in Texas. 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 13,073 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 Lake Jackson households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Jackson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lake Jackson is 1,133rd among 1,544 U.S. towns of 19,000 to 38,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Colleyville TX | 25,727 | $218K | 2.5% | 3.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Corinth TX | 25,297 | $121K | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,131 | East Ridge TN | 21,921 | $62K | 13.1% | 5.3% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,132 | Carlisle PA | 22,693 | $62K | 15.1% | 4.4% | 22% | C+ |
| 1,133 | Lake Jackson TX | 27,803 | $91K | 11.7% | 8.0% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,134 | Summit Township MI | 22,705 | $66K | 7.7% | 7.3% | 10% | C+ |
| 1,135 | Buenaventura Lakes FL | 32,682 | $69K | 13.3% | 6.3% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,544 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Lake Jackson, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
The towns next door employ 24% of Lake Jackson
The biggest share goes to Freeport (12%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Jackson workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Jackson | – | C+ | C− | 21 min | $90,938 |
| Freeport | 12% | C | C | 25 min | $61,134 |
| Clute | 12% | C | C | 21 min | $70,208 |
| Richwood | under 2% | B | C− | 21 min | $88,380 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lake Jackson’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 Lake Jackson: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Jackson?
$90,938 (±$8,368) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Jackson?
11.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Jackson?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Jackson work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (17%, 51 mi), Clute (12%, 4 mi), Freeport (12%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lake Jackson walkable?
Lake Jackson is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Jackson without a car?
0% 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 Lake Jackson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Jackson
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.