Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Families in Prairie View earn less than those in 96% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Prairie View are C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Leaving out college students, 16.6% of residents live below the poverty line; Texas has 13.2%. Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, against 14% across Texas.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Prairie View, in brief
Prairie View’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Prairie View is Houston, 41 miles away as the crow flies. 26% of working residents (445) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Prairie View is where the jobs are
Prairie View has 2,786 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Prairie View’s workers comes from Houston
343 of the people who work in Prairie View live in Houston, 41 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
43% 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 ↓
Nearly all the work in Prairie View is services
87% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 13% are in factories, building or farms. 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.
Income, poverty and work: Prairie View’s grade explained
On family income, poverty and job access, Prairie View is better than 27% of U.S. towns, #452 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Prairie View’s grade up (ahead of 75% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($49,769, U.S. $99,999).
66% of Prairie View’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (32% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 16.6%, against 38.1% for all residents. Unemployment (21.9%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($49,769), since student households pull the household median down ($21,060).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Prairie View could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The commute from Prairie View, by distance
About 43% 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.
In and out of Prairie View on a workday
On a workday 1,592 residents head out to work, 93 work right here, and 2,693 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Prairie View on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Where the people who work in Prairie View live
Where Prairie View clocks in
26% of workers
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.
In Prairie View, services account for most jobs
2,786 jobs are based in Prairie View.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prairie View, 2013 → 2023: 2,741 → 2,786. 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 Prairie View’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Prairie View spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prairie View workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,755 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.
In Prairie View, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prairie View is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #97 of 642 in Texas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,947 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). 4.2% of Prairie View households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Prairie View’s commuters take a bus or train.
Prairie View is 2,285th of 2,862 U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,100 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Oak Point TX | 6,909 | $126K | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,283 | Arkansas City KS | 11,800 | $50K | 17.2% | 2.8% | 33% | C |
| 2,284 | Fairmont MN | 10,099 | $53K | 15.3% | 3.1% | 53% | C |
| 2,285 | Prairie View TX | 8,969 | $21K | 38.1% | 21.9% | 6% | C |
| 2,286 | Penn Forest Township PA | 10,434 | $67K | 10.6% | 9.0% | 6% | C |
| 2,287 | North Bend OR | 9,966 | $81K | 14.0% | 6.5% | 23% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,862 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Prairie View, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Prairie View and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Waller (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prairie View workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie View | – | C | B+ | 24 min | $21,060 |
| Waller | 2% | C+ | B+ | 31 min | $39,969 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prairie View’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.
- Students. 66% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Prairie View: questions
What is the median household income in Prairie View?
$21,060 (±$1,837) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prairie View?
38.1% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 16.6%. Texas: 13.8%.
How long is the commute from Prairie View?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prairie View work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (26%, 41 mi), Austin (5%, 107 mi), Dallas (3%, 193 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prairie View walkable?
Prairie View is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prairie View without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prairie View, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prairie View
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.