Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Midland are higher than in 67% of U.S. towns
6% of workers work from home, where Texas as a whole has 14%. Below the poverty line: 12.4% of residents, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. Jobs and income earn Midland B+; getting around on foot earns it B.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Midland in brief
The four measures behind Midland’s grade
Job access by car holds Midland’s grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Midland could be anywhere from B to A−.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Midland workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 62,302 commuters (the 6% 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.
Who leaves Midland for work, and who comes in
On a workday 29,685 residents head out to work, 31,933 work right here, and 43,378 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 (1.22 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.
10% of working residents work in Odessa
Where Midland clocks in
10% 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.
Making and building: 31% of jobs based in Midland
75,311 jobs are based in Midland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Midland, 2013 → 2023: 64,770 → 75,311. 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 Midland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Midland
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.
Getting around Midland: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Midland is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #211 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% 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 66,410 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). 5.0% of Midland households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Midland’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
92nd of 238: where Midland ranks among U.S. towns of 103,000 to 199,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| 4 | Pearland TX | 129,930 | $119K | 4.1% | 3.3% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Allen TX | 113,447 | $131K | 6.1% | 3.7% | 11% | A |
| 10 | Sugar Land TX | 107,726 | $136K | 5.5% | 4.1% | 15% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | Proviso Township IL | 147,144 | $82K | 10.1% | 5.1% | 13% | B+ |
| 91 | Surprise AZ | 175,304 | $97K | 8.6% | 4.3% | 10% | B+ |
| 92 | Midland TX | 147,615 | $90K | 12.4% | 3.5% | 52% | B+ |
| 93 | Rio Rancho NM | 114,419 | $90K | 7.4% | 4.6% | 19% | B+ |
| 94 | Pasadena CA | 135,804 | $105K | 13.3% | 5.6% | 20% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 238 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Midland, 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 Midland: questions
What is the median household income in Midland?
$89,585 (±$6,078) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Midland?
12.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Midland?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Midland work?
52% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Odessa (10%, 17 mi), Lubbock (2%, 107 mi), Houston (2%, 428 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Midland walkable?
Midland is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Midland without a car?
<1% 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 Midland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Midland
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.