Photo: Not home at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Laredo’s household incomes are lower than in 68% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 20.9% of residents, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. The two grades for Laredo are C for jobs and income and B for walkability. 6% of workers work from home, where Texas as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Laredo apart
Most jobs in Laredo go to people who live here
Of the 89,730 jobs based in Laredo, 79% are held by Laredo residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Laredo are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Laredo workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Laredo’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% 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 the Jobs & income grade adds up in Laredo
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Laredo is better than 31% of U.S. towns, #423 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Laredo’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laredo could be anywhere from C to C+.
Laredo by day and by night
On a workday 22,877 residents head out to work, 71,045 work right here, and 18,685 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 (0.96 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 trip to work from Laredo: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laredo workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 104,000 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.
What work there is in Laredo: 89,730 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laredo, 2013 → 2023: 82,794 → 89,730. 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 Laredo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Laredo goes to work
Where Laredo clocks in
4% of workers
1% of workers
1% 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.
How far Laredo’s workers travel
About 23% 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.
Few in Laredo walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Laredo is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns, #200 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.0% 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 110,463 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). 6.6% of Laredo households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Laredo’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Laredo next to U.S. towns of 189,000 to 364,000: 79th of 96 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Oyster Bay NY | 301,115 | $160K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 19% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | McKinney TX | 236,001 | $124K | 5.7% | 3.7% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Plano TX | 293,028 | $112K | 6.8% | 4.0% | 23% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | Providence RI | 195,310 | $68K | 20.7% | 8.2% | 36% | C |
| 78 | Winston-Salem NC | 257,271 | $59K | 17.7% | 5.7% | 48% | C |
| 79 | Laredo TX | 269,515 | $64K | 20.9% | 5.4% | 76% | C |
| 80 | Mobile AL | 200,824 | $54K | 18.4% | 5.6% | 62% | C |
| 81 | New Orleans LA | 362,154 | $57K | 22.6% | 7.5% | 57% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | Cleveland OH | 363,608 | $41K | 30.6% | 10.8% | 42% | C− |
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 Laredo, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Work in the towns next to Laredo
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Laredo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laredo | – | C | B | 22 min | $63,915 |
| Los Minerales | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Laredo Ranchettes | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| La Presa | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Los Corralitos | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Tanquecitos South Acres | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Rio Bravo | under 1% | C− | C− | 34 min | $45,864 |
| Los Altos | under 1% | D | D− | — | $22,177 |
| San Carlos I | under 1% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Los Minerales, Laredo Ranchettes, La Presa, Los Corralitos, Tanquecitos South Acres and San Carlos I: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Laredo’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 Laredo: questions
What is the median household income in Laredo?
$63,915 (±$2,518) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laredo?
20.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laredo?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laredo work?
76% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Antonio (4%, 144 mi), Houston (1%, 292 mi), Austin (1%, 216 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laredo walkable?
Laredo is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laredo without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laredo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laredo
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.