Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Ponder works elsewhere
The two grades for Ponder are A for jobs and income and C for walkability. Ponder has 635 jobs for 1,611 working residents. Measured by household income, Ponder is ahead of 81% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Ponder apart on work
Ponder makes and builds things
45% of the jobs based in Ponder are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ponder residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 12%. The jobs ↓
Ponder’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Ponder is Fort Worth, 27 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (190) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Ponder
73% of Ponder residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 55% of the jobs based in Ponder pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 99% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Ponder empties out on a workday
About 1,900 people are in Ponder on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than the 2,900 who live here: 1,600 head out to work and 610 come in. Day and night ↓
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.
What’s behind Ponder’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ponder is better than 92% of U.S. towns, #65 of 642 in Texas. The poverty rate is its strongest input (1.0%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ponder could be anywhere from A− to A+.
A place that makes things: 45% of Ponder’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ponder, 2013 → 2023: 740 → 635. 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 Ponder’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Ponder
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.
Who works in Ponder, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 1,589 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 613 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Ponder on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer 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.
12% of working residents work in Fort Worth
Where Ponder clocks in
12% of workers
8% 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.
About 30 minutes to work from Ponder
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ponder workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,148 commuters (the 13% 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.
Ponder is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ponder is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns, #498 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Ponder 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 1,317 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.0% of Ponder households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ponder’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ponder ranks: 310th of 4,882 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 308 | Nockamixon Township PA | 3,370 | $105K | 6.1% | 0.6% | 10% | A |
| 309 | Hideaway TX | 3,459 | $110K | 2.7% | 0.8% | 4% | A |
| 310 | Ponder TX | 2,863 | $106K | 1.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| 311 | Dayton ME | 2,182 | $114K | 3.7% | 0.2% | 5% | A |
| 312 | Essex MA | 3,770 | $157K | 8.1% | 1.5% | 15% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Ponder, 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 Ponder: questions
What is the median household income in Ponder?
$106,250 (±$14,909) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ponder?
1.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ponder?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ponder work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Worth (12%, 27 mi), Dallas (11%, 40 mi), Denton (8%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ponder walkable?
Ponder is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ponder without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ponder, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ponder
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.