Household incomes in Rice Tracts are higher than in 92% of U.S. towns
Rice Tracts grades A for jobs and income and D− for walkability. The poverty rate is 5.7%; Texas has 13.8%. Hardly any work in Rice Tracts itself; outside it, Brownsville draws the most (30%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Rice Tracts, in brief
Rice Tracts and Brownsville trade workers both ways
Brownsville is the top workplace for Rice Tracts residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Rice Tracts come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Rice Tracts is a place people come home to
There are 52 jobs based in Rice Tracts, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. 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; with 259 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rice Tracts
On income, poverty and job access, Rice Tracts is better than 86% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($133,472, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Rice Tracts’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rice Tracts could be anywhere from B to A+.
The towns that employ Rice Tracts’ residents
Where Rice Tracts clocks in
30% of workers
22% 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.
Rice Tracts quiets down on a workday
On a workday 259 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 52 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Rice Tracts on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.20 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
88% of the jobs in Rice Tracts pay over $3,333 a month
52 jobs are based in Rice Tracts.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rice Tracts, 2013 → 2023: 8 → 52. 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 Rice Tracts’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes to work from Rice Tracts
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rice Tracts workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 488 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.
How far Rice Tracts goes to work
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.
Most trips from Rice Tracts start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rice Tracts is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rice Tracts 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 527 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). 0.0% of Rice Tracts households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rice Tracts’ commuters take a bus or train.
Rice Tracts places 385th of 5,877 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 31 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 383 | Uintah UT | 1,402 | $108K | 4.9% | 3.5% | 1% | A |
| 384 | Tri-Lakes IN | 1,025 | $115K | 4.7% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| 385 | Rice Tracts TX | 1,384 | $133K | 5.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| 386 | Reno Township KS | 1,477 | $77K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A |
| 387 | Concord Township OH | 1,396 | $117K | 1.8% | 2.4% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Rice Tracts, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Rice Tracts and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Rice Tracts workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice Tracts | – | A | D− | 27 min | $133,472 |
| Encantada-Ranchito-El Calaboz | under 2% | C− | D− | 20 min | $45,505 |
| Palmer | under 2% | D | D− | 24 min | $18,675 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Rice Tracts’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 Rice Tracts: questions
What is the median household income in Rice Tracts?
$133,472 (±$32,303) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rice Tracts?
5.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rice Tracts?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rice Tracts work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brownsville (30%, 10 mi), Harlingen (22%, 10 mi), San Benito (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rice Tracts walkable?
Rice Tracts is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rice Tracts without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rice Tracts, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rice Tracts
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.