Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Linden’s household incomes are lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Linden grades D− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Poverty touches 32.1% of residents, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. About one in seven work in Linden; the top destination outside it is Texarkana (11%, 34 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Linden: the gist
Linden’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Linden is Texarkana, 34 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (63) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Many jobs in Linden pay little
26% of the jobs based in Linden pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. 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; with 580 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Linden: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Linden is better than 3% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Linden’s grade up (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Linden’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Linden could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many miles Linden commutes
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.
Services make up most of the work in Linden
663 jobs are based in Linden.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Linden, 2013 → 2023: 782 → 663. 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 Linden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Linden, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 499 residents head out to work, 81 work right here, and 582 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 (1.14 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.
Where Linden goes to work
Where Linden clocks in
11% of workers
8% of workers
4% 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.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Linden workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 620 commuters (the 10% 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.
Linden is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Linden is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 688 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). 8.1% of Linden households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Linden’s commuters take a bus or train.
Linden and other U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 24 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,023 | St. Johnsville NY | 1,706 | $47K | 27.7% | 7.0% | 8% | D− |
| 5,024 | Union City OH | 1,567 | $32K | 38.3% | 13.7% | 4% | D− |
| 5,025 | Linden TX | 1,809 | $44K | 32.1% | 5.8% | 14% | D− |
| 5,026 | Tappahannock VA | 2,193 | $47K | 25.2% | 0.0% | 13% | D− |
| 5,027 | Harrisville WV | 1,511 | $48K | 25.1% | 2.1% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Linden, 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 Linden: questions
What is the median household income in Linden?
$43,661 (±$16,135) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Linden?
32.1%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Linden?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Linden work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Texarkana (11%, 34 mi), Atlanta (8%, 13 mi), Jefferson (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Linden walkable?
Linden is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Linden without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Linden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Linden
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.