Photo: ProfessorKon · CC BY-SA 4.0Sealy has lower household incomes than 79% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Sealy are C for jobs and income and B for walkability. Poverty touches 21.4% of residents, against 13.8% across Texas. Home is the office for 4% of workers (Texas 14%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Sealy apart on work
Sealy’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sealy is Houston, 46 miles away as the crow flies. 27% of working residents (1,035) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Sealy trades workers with the towns around it
Sealy has about as many jobs (3,685) as working residents (3,780), but they are mostly different people: 3,306 residents leave for work each day while 3,211 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Sealy are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
45% of the jobs in Sealy are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Few Sealy 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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Sealy
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sealy is better than 25% of U.S. towns, #470 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Sealy’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sealy could be anywhere from D to B−.
How far Sealy’s workers travel
About 26% 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.
A workday in Sealy: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 3,306 residents head out to work, 474 work right here, and 3,211 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 (0.97 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.
What the 3,685 jobs in Sealy are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sealy, 2013 → 2023: 2,901 → 3,685. 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 Sealy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sealy workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,096 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.
27% of working residents work in Houston
Where Sealy clocks in
27% 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.
The commute in Sealy is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sealy is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #209 of 642 in Texas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,238 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). 1.9% of Sealy households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sealy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 5,600 to 10,700, Sealy ranks 2,405th of 2,981 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Hickory Creek TX | 6,875 | $149K | 2.6% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Alamo Heights TX | 7,632 | $183K | 2.5% | 2.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Oak Point TX | 6,909 | $126K | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,403 | LaSalle IL | 9,388 | $58K | 18.8% | 5.0% | 11% | C |
| 2,404 | Moundsville WV | 7,659 | $49K | 22.5% | 3.2% | 18% | C |
| 2,405 | Sealy TX | 7,937 | $57K | 21.4% | 5.4% | 13% | C |
| 2,406 | Hillsboro TX | 9,036 | $56K | 20.0% | 4.2% | 20% | C |
| 2,407 | Waupaca WI | 6,352 | $53K | 11.5% | 5.6% | 32% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,981 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Sealy, 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 Sealy: questions
What is the median household income in Sealy?
$56,514 (±$7,290) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sealy?
21.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sealy?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sealy work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (27%, 46 mi), Katy (5%, 19 mi), Austin (4%, 102 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sealy walkable?
Sealy is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sealy 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 Sealy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sealy
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.