Household incomes in Laureles trail those of 98% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 35.4% of residents; Texas has 13.8%. Jobs and income earn Laureles D; getting around on foot earns it D−. Hardly any work in Laureles; the top destination outside it is Brownsville (23%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Laureles in brief
Laureles is a place people come home to
There are 45 jobs based in Laureles, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Laureles has about 2,700 people in it, 36% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Laureles and Brownsville trade workers both ways
Brownsville is the top workplace for Laureles residents (23%) and also where the most people who work in Laureles come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Laureles workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Laureles’ 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.
Why Laureles gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Laureles is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #610 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Laureles’ grade up (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laureles could be anywhere from D to B−.
In and out of Laureles on a workday
On a workday 1,573 residents head out to work, 11 work right here, and 34 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,700 people are in Laureles on a workday afternoon, 36% fewer than live here.
0.03 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.
Where Laureles’ working residents head each day
Where Laureles clocks in
23% of workers
13% 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 Laureles
45 jobs are based in Laureles.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laureles, 2013 → 2023: 34 → 45. 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 Laureles’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Laureles’ commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laureles workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 930 commuters (the 21% 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.
How many miles Laureles commutes
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.
The commute in Laureles is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Laureles is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #640 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Laureles near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,175 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). 1.0% of Laureles households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Laureles’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Laureles compares with U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| 4 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,704 | Menominee WI | 4,199 | $62K | 21.7% | 10.0% | 45% | D |
| 3,705 | Summit AZ | 4,896 | $47K | 31.8% | 22.3% | 1% | D |
| 3,706 | Laureles TX | 4,224 | $35K | 35.4% | 10.2% | 1% | D |
| 3,707 | Warsaw NY | 3,592 | $55K | 22.4% | 9.0% | 26% | D |
| 3,708 | Sandy Creek NY | 3,824 | $67K | 22.0% | 9.9% | 11% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,962 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Laureles, 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 Laureles: questions
What is the median household income in Laureles?
$34,771 (±$23,758) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laureles?
35.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laureles?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laureles work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brownsville (23%, 9 mi), Harlingen (13%, 14 mi), Los Fresnos (13%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laureles walkable?
Laureles is near the bottom of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laureles without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laureles, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laureles
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.