Lone Star’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 6% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B: more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 23 minutes each way (Texas 27, U.S. 26). Only 2% work in Lone Star; the top destination outside it is Daingerfield (13%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Lone Star, in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Lone Star than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Lone Star fell from 505 in 2013 to 276 in 2023, −45%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
35% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Lone Star workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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; with 480 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Lone Star’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Lone Star is better than 6% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Lone Star’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($38,646, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (8.1%) is left out: Lone Star’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, Lone Star could be anywhere from D− to D.
What the 276 jobs in Lone Star are
276 jobs are based in Lone Star. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lone Star’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lone Star, 2013 → 2023: 505 → 276. 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.
Half of Lone Star commutes less than 21 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 35% 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.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lone Star workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Lone Star quiets down on a workday
On a workday 472 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 268 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Lone Star on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.58 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.
13% of working residents work in Daingerfield
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Lone Star clocks in
13% of workers
12% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Most trips from Lone Star start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lone Star is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 555 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). 1.5% of Lone Star households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lone Star’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lone Star is 5,182nd of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Lone Star, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 31 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,180 | Guttenberg IA | 1,789 | $58K | 24.7% | 4.6% | 22% | D |
| 5,181 | Elkhart KS | 1,722 | $57K | 16.9% | 0.0% | 33% | D |
| 5,182 | Lone Star TX | 1,391 | $39K | 28.0% | 8.1% | 2% | D |
| 5,183 | Roodhouse Township IL | 1,764 | $59K | 25.8% | 13.3% | 3% | D |
| 5,184 | Monarch Mill SC | 1,822 | $39K | 21.0% | 9.6% | 1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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.
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 Lone Star: questions
What is the median household income in Lone Star?
$38,646 (±$10,532) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lone Star?
28.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lone Star?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lone Star work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Daingerfield (13%, 6 mi), Mount Pleasant (12%, 22 mi), Hughes Springs (6%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lone Star walkable?
Lone Star is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lone Star without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lone Star, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lone Star
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.