Warren and Myrta Bacon House · Photo: Robert Lawton · CC BY-SA 2.5Households in Lubbock earn less than those in 73% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Lubbock C+; getting around on foot earns it B+. 18.9% of residents are in poverty, against 13.8% across Texas. About two in three work in Lubbock; the top destination outside it is Wolfforth (2%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lubbock, in a few figures
Most jobs in Lubbock go to people who live here
Of the 135,340 jobs based in Lubbock, 61% are held by Lubbock residents. In most towns, people from elsewhere hold most of the local jobs. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Lubbock are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Lubbock
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lubbock is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #380 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Lubbock’s grade up (ahead of 80% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lubbock could be anywhere from C to C+.
How a workday changes Lubbock
On a workday 32,663 residents head out to work, 82,911 work right here, and 52,429 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 (1.17 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.
About 16 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lubbock workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 121,757 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.
Where Lubbock goes to work
Where Lubbock clocks in
2% 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.
What the 135,340 jobs in Lubbock are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lubbock, 2013 → 2023: 118,786 → 135,340. 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 Lubbock’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Lubbock
About 19% 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.
Lubbock is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lubbock is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #80 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Lubbock 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 131,071 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). 6.1% of Lubbock households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Lubbock’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Lubbock places 75th of 94 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 191,000 to 369,000
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Worcester MA | 213,862 | $70K | 19.6% | 6.5% | 37% | C+ |
| 74 | Fort Wayne IN | 275,203 | $61K | 16.0% | 5.6% | 60% | C+ |
| 75 | Lubbock TX | 273,071 | $61K | 18.9% | 5.2% | 72% | C+ |
| 76 | Providence RI | 195,310 | $68K | 20.7% | 8.2% | 36% | C |
| 77 | Winston-Salem NC | 257,271 | $59K | 17.7% | 5.7% | 48% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | 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 Lubbock, 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 Lubbock: questions
What is the median household income in Lubbock?
$60,895 (±$1,870) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lubbock?
18.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lubbock?
16 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lubbock work?
72% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wolfforth (2%, 8 mi), Amarillo (1%, 113 mi), Dallas (1%, 301 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lubbock walkable?
Lubbock is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lubbock without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lubbock, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lubbock
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.