Imperial Sugar Company Refinery Historic District · Photo: Kylelovesyou at English Wikipedia · Public domainHousehold incomes in Sugar Land top those of 93% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 5.5% of residents, next to 13.8% across Texas. Sugar Land grades A for jobs and income and B for walkability. For 24% of workers, the job is at home, against 14% across Texas.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Sugar Land in brief
More than half of Sugar Land works in Houston
25,104 working residents, 51%, have their main job in Houston, 20 miles away across the town line. That’s 4 times as many as work in Sugar Land itself. The commute map ↓
Sugar Land is where the jobs are
Sugar Land has 80,549 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Sugar Land works from home
24% of Sugar Land workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Sugar Land’s workers comes from Houston
16,970 of the people who work in Sugar Land live in Houston, 20 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Sugar Land draws workers from far and wide
The 80,549 jobs in Sugar Land are filled from a wide area. Sugar Land’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 34%; the other 57% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What’s behind Sugar Land’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sugar Land is better than 92% of U.S. towns, #71 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car is its strongest input (ahead of 97% of U.S. towns); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (4.1%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sugar Land could be anywhere from A to A+.
The towns that send workers to Sugar Land
Where Sugar Land clocks in
51% of workers
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.
How a workday changes Sugar Land
On a workday 42,177 residents head out to work, 7,148 work right here, and 73,401 people come in from elsewhere.
About 139,000 people are in Sugar Land on a workday afternoon, 29% more than live here.
1.6 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 2024, primary jobs.
Sugar Land’s commute takes about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sugar Land workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 40,465 commuters (the 24% 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.
Jobs in Sugar Land: what the 80,549 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sugar Land, 2014 → 2024: 62,730 → 80,549. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Sugar Land’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Sugar Land to work
About 15% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Sugar Land, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sugar Land is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #202 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of 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 53,044 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). 2.1% of Sugar Land households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Sugar Land’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Among U.S. towns of 75,000 to 145,000, Sugar Land ranks 26th of 403 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 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| 3 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Flower Mound TX | 79,540 | $161K | 4.3% | 3.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Pearland TX | 129,930 | $119K | 4.1% | 3.3% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Allen TX | 113,447 | $131K | 6.1% | 3.7% | 10% | A |
| 25 | O'Fallon MO | 96,101 | $110K | 5.4% | 2.7% | 15% | A |
| 26 | Sugar Land TX | 107,726 | $136K | 5.5% | 4.1% | 14% | A |
| 27 | Northfield Township IL | 89,835 | $137K | 7.1% | 3.5% | 16% | A |
| 28 | Centennial CO | 108,658 | $132K | 3.3% | 4.6% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Leander TX | 91,132 | $139K | 5.8% | 3.4% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 403 | Flint MI | 79,306 | $38K | 34.1% | 14.8% | 20% | 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 Sugar Land, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Next door is work for 54% of Sugar Land
The biggest share goes to Houston (51%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sugar Land workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Land | – | A | B | 29 min | $136,217 |
| Stafford | 2% | B+ | A | 26 min | $87,432 |
| Missouri City | 1% | A− | B− | 30 min | $94,390 |
| Richmond | under 1% | C | C | 29 min | $50,337 |
| Houston | 51% | C+ | A | 27 min | $64,813 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sugar Land’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 2024, 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 Sugar Land: questions
What is the median household income in Sugar Land?
$136,217 (±$5,041) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sugar Land?
5.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sugar Land?
29 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sugar Land work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (51%, 20 mi), Stafford (2%, 4 mi), Austin (2%, 136 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Sugar Land walkable?
Sugar Land is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sugar Land without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sugar Land, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sugar Land
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.