Photo: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas · CC BY 2.0Households in Rotan have lower incomes than those in 84% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 19.4% of residents, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. Rotan grades D− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. For 5% of workers, the job is at home (Texas 14%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Rotan
A big share show a job far from home
40% 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 ↓
Commutes from Rotan are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. 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 569 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Rotan
On income, poverty and job access, Rotan is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Rotan’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Rotan’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, Rotan could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many miles Rotan commutes
About 40% 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.
About 21 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rotan workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 482 commuters (the 5% 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 many people are in Rotan by day
On a workday 412 residents head out to work, 157 work right here, and 265 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Rotan on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.74 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.
6% of working residents work in Abilene
Where Rotan clocks in
6% of workers
3% 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.
The kinds of work in Rotan
422 jobs are based in Rotan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rotan, 2013 → 2023: 480 → 422. 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 Rotan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Rotan walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rotan is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. 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 508 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). 2.1% of Rotan households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rotan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rotan and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 30 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,948 | West Jefferson NC | 1,348 | $47K | 20.8% | 12.7% | 13% | D− |
| 4,949 | Rush Springs OK | 1,020 | $45K | 25.6% | 3.7% | 8% | D− |
| 4,950 | Rotan TX | 1,333 | $53K | 19.4% | 4.2% | 28% | D− |
| 4,951 | Millcreek Township IN | 1,422 | $49K | 18.4% | 2.4% | 6% | D− |
| 4,952 | Buckeye Township MI | 1,416 | $53K | 21.0% | 8.4% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Rotan, 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 Rotan: questions
What is the median household income in Rotan?
$53,289 (±$6,897) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rotan?
19.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rotan?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rotan work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Abilene (6%, 50 mi), Sweetwater (6%, 27 mi), Roby (3%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rotan walkable?
Rotan is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rotan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rotan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rotan
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.