Households in Rice have lower incomes than those in 64% of U.S. towns
For 4% of workers, the job is at home; Texas has 14%. The poverty rate is 16.2% (Texas 13.8%). Rice grades C for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Rice
Rice and Corsicana trade workers both ways
Corsicana is the top workplace for Rice residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Rice come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
37% 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 ↓
Few Rice workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 445 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rice
On income, poverty and job access, Rice is better than 28% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Rice’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Rice’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Rice could be anywhere from D to B+.
15% of working residents work in Corsicana
Where Rice clocks in
11% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Rice
About 37% 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.
The daily trip from Rice: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rice workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 558 commuters (the 4% 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 daily commute in and out of Rice
On a workday 430 residents head out to work, 15 work right here, and 332 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 (0.78 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.
The 347 jobs based in Rice
347 jobs are based in Rice.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rice, 2013 → 2023: 443 → 347. 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’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Rice start in a car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 582 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). 4.6% of Rice households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rice’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Rice is 2,866th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 27 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,864 | Grimsley TN | 1,171 | $57K | 6.5% | 11.0% | 1% | C |
| 2,865 | Mulberry IN | 1,224 | $59K | 15.3% | 6.6% | 3% | C |
| 2,866 | Rice TX | 1,286 | $66K | 16.2% | 2.1% | 3% | C |
| 2,867 | Marmet WV | 1,416 | $52K | 13.6% | 12.1% | 2% | C |
| 2,868 | Montmorency Township MI | 1,093 | $68K | 7.2% | 7.4% | 3% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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, 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 Rice: questions
What is the median household income in Rice?
$65,958 (±$12,648) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rice?
16.2%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rice?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rice work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Corsicana (15%, 11 mi), Dallas (12%, 42 mi), Ennis (11%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rice walkable?
Rice is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rice without a car?
0% 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 Rice, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rice
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.