Photo: Renegomezphotography · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Sabinal trail those of 98% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, against 14% across Texas. Below the poverty line: 36.5% of residents, where Texas as a whole has 13.8%. Sabinal grades D− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Sabinal apart on work
A big share show a job far from home
60% 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 ↓
Sabinal’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sabinal is San Antonio, 58 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (88) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Sabinal workers work from home
Only 2% 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 447 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Sabinal: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Sabinal is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sabinal’s grade.
Unemployment (7.8%) is left out: Sabinal’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, Sabinal could be anywhere from D− to D.
Half of Sabinal commutes less than 56 miles
About 60% 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.
Sabinal’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sabinal workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 259 commuters (the 2% 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.
Sabinal quiets down on a workday
On a workday 423 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 155 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Sabinal on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.40 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.
20% of working residents work in San Antonio
Where Sabinal clocks in
20% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
What Sabinal’s employers do
179 jobs are based in Sabinal.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sabinal, 2013 → 2023: 216 → 179. 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 Sabinal’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Sabinal walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sabinal is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 6.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 265 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). 11.8% of Sabinal households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sabinal’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Sabinal sits 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,819 | Columbus NM | 1,484 | $26K | 22.7% | 6.3% | 4% | D− |
| 5,820 | Sneedville TN | 1,349 | $25K | 48.4% | 14.2% | 23% | D− |
| 5,821 | Sabinal TX | 1,378 | $34K | 36.5% | 7.8% | 5% | D− |
| 5,822 | Cherryfield ME | 1,093 | $37K | 26.3% | 6.4% | 12% | D− |
| 5,823 | Pablo MT | 1,632 | $36K | 34.5% | 9.5% | 8% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Sabinal, 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 Sabinal: questions
What is the median household income in Sabinal?
$33,542 (±$13,089) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sabinal?
36.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sabinal?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sabinal work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Antonio (20%, 58 mi), Uvalde (7%, 20 mi), Hondo (4%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sabinal walkable?
Sabinal is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sabinal without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sabinal, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sabinal
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.