Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0For more than half of its working residents, Shallowater is a commute to Lubbock
About one in ten work in Shallowater; the top destination outside it is Lubbock (56%, 11 miles). Jobs and income earn Shallowater A−; getting around on foot earns it C−. Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, next to 14% for Texas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Shallowater, in brief
More than half of Shallowater works in Lubbock
745 working residents, 56%, have their main job in Lubbock, 11 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Shallowater itself. The commute map ↓
Shallowater has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Shallowater went from 452 in 2013 to 736 in 2023, +63%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Shallowater are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 54 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Shallowater’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Shallowater is better than 82% of U.S. towns, #139 of 642 in Texas. The poverty rate is its strongest input (3.7%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.4%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Shallowater could be anywhere from B− to A+.
Where the trip to work from Shallowater ends
Where Shallowater clocks in
2% 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.
Inside Shallowater’s 736 jobs
736 jobs are based in Shallowater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shallowater, 2013 → 2023: 452 → 736. 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 Shallowater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Shallowater: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shallowater workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,368 commuters (the 6% 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 a workday changes Shallowater
On a workday 1,199 residents head out to work, 126 work right here, and 610 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,400 people are in Shallowater on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.56 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.
The commute from Shallowater, by distance
About 22% 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 commute in Shallowater is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shallowater is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns, #540 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Shallowater near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,456 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). 0.8% of Shallowater households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shallowater’s commuters take a bus or train.
Shallowater is 714th of 4,618 U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 712 | Lake Clarke Shores FL | 3,597 | $157K | 5.1% | 6.6% | 2% | A− |
| 713 | New Palestine IN | 3,621 | $97K | 5.7% | 4.1% | 4% | A− |
| 714 | Shallowater TX | 2,957 | $89K | 3.7% | 3.4% | 10% | A− |
| 715 | Union Township KS | 2,704 | $103K | 4.3% | 4.3% | 7% | A− |
| 716 | Newton Township PA | 2,956 | $108K | 6.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Shallowater, 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 Shallowater: questions
What is the median household income in Shallowater?
$89,107 (±$18,140) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shallowater?
3.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shallowater?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shallowater work?
10% work in town.
Is Shallowater walkable?
Shallowater is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shallowater without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shallowater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shallowater
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.