Work means Houston for about half of Sheldon’s working residents
For jobs and income Sheldon is better than 68% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (C). 2% of workers work from home (Texas 14%). Hardly any work in Sheldon; the top destination outside it is Houston (45%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Sheldon in brief
Nearly half of Sheldon works in Houston
319 working residents, 45%, have their main job in Houston, 16 miles away. That’s 45 times as many as work in Sheldon itself. The commute map ↓
Sheldon is where the jobs are
Sheldon has 1,260 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Sheldon makes and builds things
49% of the jobs based in Sheldon are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sheldon residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. 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; with 714 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Sheldon gets the Jobs & income grade it does
The poverty rate holds Sheldon’s grade up (0.8%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (7.8%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sheldon could be anywhere from B− to A+.
Where Sheldon’s workers come from
Where Sheldon clocks in
45% 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.
How a workday changes Sheldon
On a workday 709 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 1,255 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,800 people are in Sheldon on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
49% of the jobs in Sheldon make or build things
1,260 jobs are based in Sheldon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sheldon, 2013 → 2023: 1,613 → 1,260. 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 Sheldon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Sheldon: about 30 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sheldon workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 956 commuters (the 3% 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.
Half of Sheldon commutes less than 17 miles
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 Sheldon is mostly behind the wheel
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 981 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.0% of Sheldon households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sheldon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Sheldon is 1,350th among 5,641 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| 26 | Shoreacres TX | 1,535 | $131K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,348 | Warner NH | 2,902 | $94K | 8.4% | 1.3% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,349 | Kent Estates IA | 1,848 | $122K | 11.4% | 1.4% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,350 | Sheldon TX | 2,208 | $69K | 0.8% | 7.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,351 | Reinbeck IA | 1,668 | $87K | 4.4% | 3.4% | 11% | B+ |
| 1,352 | Campbellsport WI | 2,034 | $80K | 11.3% | 1.3% | 9% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Sheldon, 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 Sheldon: questions
What is the median household income in Sheldon?
$68,750 (±$34,689) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sheldon?
0.8%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sheldon?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sheldon work?
1% work in town.
Is Sheldon walkable?
Sheldon is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sheldon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sheldon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sheldon
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.