Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Lorena has higher household incomes than 66% of U.S. towns
4.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 13.8% across Texas. Jobs and income earn Lorena A−; getting around on foot earns it D. 7% of workers have no commute at all, where Texas as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Lorena
Lorena and Waco trade workers both ways
Waco is the top workplace for Lorena residents (39%) and also where the most people who work in Lorena come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Lorena is where the jobs are
Lorena has 1,348 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Lorena makes and builds things
45% of the jobs based in Lorena are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lorena residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 17%. 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 822 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Lorena
On income, poverty and job access, Lorena is better than 82% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input; household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($88,250, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Lorena’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, Lorena could be anywhere from B to A.
Where Lorena’s workers come from
Where Lorena clocks in
5% 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 a workday changes Lorena
On a workday 771 residents head out to work, 51 work right here, and 1,297 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Lorena on a workday afternoon, 29% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
45% of the jobs in Lorena make or build things
1,348 jobs are based in Lorena.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lorena, 2013 → 2023: 1,031 → 1,348. 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 Lorena’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Lorena: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lorena workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 650 commuters (the 7% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Lorena
About 30% 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.
Most trips from Lorena start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lorena is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Lorena 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 697 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). 5.4% of Lorena households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lorena’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lorena is 627th of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 25 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 625 | Gladeville TN | 2,199 | $97K | 1.7% | 5.4% | <1% | A− |
| 626 | Marlborough MO | 2,185 | $50K | 4.6% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| 627 | Lorena TX | 1,817 | $88K | 4.6% | 1.8% | 6% | A− |
| 628 | Redington Beach FL | 1,355 | $105K | 8.3% | 2.6% | 2% | A− |
| 629 | Spencer Township IN | 1,823 | $96K | 4.4% | 2.2% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Lorena, 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 Lorena: questions
What is the median household income in Lorena?
$88,250 (±$14,520) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lorena?
4.6%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lorena?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lorena work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waco (39%, 12 mi), Austin (5%, 82 mi), Temple (4%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lorena walkable?
Lorena is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lorena without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lorena, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lorena
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.