Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Lufkin draws 19,613 commuters a day, with 1.9 jobs for every working resident
For jobs and income Lufkin is better than 20% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (B). Lufkin has 25,843 jobs, and 13,504 of its residents work somewhere. Household incomes here are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Lufkin in brief
Commutes from Lufkin are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
Lufkin is where the jobs are
Lufkin has 25,843 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Lufkin draws workers from far and wide
The 25,843 jobs in Lufkin are filled from a wide area. Lufkin’s own residents hold 24% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 62% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 ↓
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.
Jobs & income in Lufkin: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Lufkin’s grade up (ahead of 57% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.0%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lufkin could be anywhere from D to C.
Getting to work from Lufkin takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lufkin workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,233 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Lufkin
On a workday 7,274 residents head out to work and 6,230 work right here.
About 47,000 people are in Lufkin on a workday afternoon, 36% more than live here.
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 Lufkin’s workforce comes from
Where Lufkin clocks in
5% of workers
2% 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 distance from Lufkin to work
About 32% 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.
What Lufkin’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lufkin, 2013 → 2023: 27,694 → 25,843. 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 Lufkin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting around Lufkin: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.0% of 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 14,209 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). 8.5% of Lufkin households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lufkin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lufkin next to U.S. towns of 24,000 to 46,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Colleyville TX | 25,727 | $218K | 2.5% | 3.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Corinth TX | 25,297 | $121K | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,155 | Shawnee OK | 32,474 | $56K | 20.8% | 6.0% | 29% | C− |
| 1,156 | Bay City MI | 31,868 | $49K | 19.1% | 6.7% | 20% | C− |
| 1,157 | Lufkin TX | 34,350 | $57K | 18.0% | 7.0% | 46% | C− |
| 1,158 | Jacksonville AR | 29,460 | $50K | 19.8% | 8.4% | 12% | C− |
| 1,159 | Richmond KY | 40,663 | $51K | 19.5% | 6.7% | 30% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,255 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Lufkin, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Next door to Lufkin
The biggest share goes to Hudson (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Lufkin’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Lufkin: questions
What is the median household income in Lufkin?
$57,048 (±$5,717) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lufkin?
18.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lufkin?
17 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lufkin work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nacogdoches (6%, 20 mi), Houston (5%, 113 mi), Diboll (2%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lufkin walkable?
Lufkin is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lufkin without a car?
<1% 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 Lufkin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lufkin
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.