Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.031% of San Marcos’ residents are college students
Family incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns. The two grades for San Marcos are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in four stay in San Marcos for work; outside it, Austin is the main destination (24%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
San Marcos at work: what stands out
San Marcos’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside San Marcos is Austin, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 24% of working residents (6,771) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A young workforce
34% of San Marcos’ working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in San Marcos
On family income, poverty and job access, San Marcos is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #381 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds San Marcos’ grade up (ahead of 81% of U.S. towns); family income pulls it down ($67,077, U.S. $99,999).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (26% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 16.5%, against 26.9% for all residents. Unemployment (5.2%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($67,077), since student households pull the household median down ($51,281).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, San Marcos could be anywhere from C to B−.
Half of San Marcos commutes less than 27 miles
About 21% 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.
What work there is in San Marcos: 38,485 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in San Marcos, 2013 → 2023: 29,536 → 38,485. 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 San Marcos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
San Marcos on a workday afternoon
On a workday 21,254 residents head out to work, 7,419 work right here, and 31,066 people come in from elsewhere.
About 88,000 people are in San Marcos on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 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.
Commuting out of San Marcos: the destinations
Where San Marcos clocks in
24% of workers
5% 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.
About 24 minutes to work from San Marcos
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of San Marcos workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 34,663 commuters (the 11% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: San Marcos
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, San Marcos is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #40 of 642 in Texas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 39,000 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). 8.1% of San Marcos households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of San Marcos’ commuters take a bus or train.
San Marcos is 471st of 580 U.S. towns of 54,000 to 105,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Flower Mound TX | 79,540 | $161K | 4.3% | 3.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 12 | Celina TX | 64,427 | $171K | 4.7% | 2.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 469 | Redding CA | 94,092 | $70K | 14.1% | 5.3% | 61% | C+ |
| 470 | North Miami FL | 60,884 | $57K | 18.9% | 6.0% | 4% | C+ |
| 471 | San Marcos TX | 77,830 | $51K | 26.9% | 5.2% | 26% | C+ |
| 472 | Joliet Township IL | 86,200 | $64K | 18.4% | 7.2% | 15% | C+ |
| 473 | Chicopee MA | 55,310 | $63K | 17.3% | 6.3% | 17% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 580 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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 San Marcos, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Around San Marcos: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Kyle (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | San Marcos workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Marcos | – | C+ | A− | 24 min | $51,281 |
| Kyle | 2% | A− | C− | 36 min | $90,323 |
| Redwood | under 2% | B+ | C− | 31 min | $88,693 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of San Marcos’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. 31% 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 San Marcos: questions
What is the median household income in San Marcos?
$51,281 (±$2,567) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in San Marcos?
26.9% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 16.5%. Texas: 13.8%.
How long is the commute from San Marcos?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in San Marcos work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Austin (24%, 31 mi), San Antonio (5%, 45 mi), New Braunfels (4%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is San Marcos walkable?
San Marcos is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around San Marcos without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from San Marcos, from the people who make the trip.
More of San Marcos
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.