Households in Sundown earn less than those in 76% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Sundown C−; getting around on foot earns it C+. The poverty rate is 14.6%, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. 0% of workers work from home; Texas has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Sundown apart
Sundown’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sundown is Lubbock, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 23% of working residents (94) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Sundown makes and builds things
67% of the jobs based in Sundown are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sundown residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Sundown pay better than its residents’ jobs
85% of the jobs based in Sundown pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 53% of the jobs Sundown residents hold. 94% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Sundown. 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 404 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Sundown’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Sundown is better than 17% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Sundown’s grade.
Unemployment (14.2%) is left out: Sundown’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sundown could be anywhere from D− to B.
How far it is to work from Sundown
About 34% 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.
67% of the jobs in Sundown make or build things
455 jobs are based in Sundown.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sundown, 2013 → 2023: 622 → 455. 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 Sundown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Sundown, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 376 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 427 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 (1.13 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.
23% of working residents work in Lubbock
Where Sundown clocks in
15% 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 long Sundown spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sundown workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 601 commuters (the 0% 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.
In Sundown, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sundown is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 601 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). 0.0% of Sundown households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sundown’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sundown ranks: 3,883rd of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 30 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,881 | Conneaut Township PA | 1,307 | $58K | 10.8% | 0.7% | 2% | C− |
| 3,882 | Camp Point IL | 1,119 | $62K | 14.9% | 2.3% | 8% | C− |
| 3,883 | Sundown TX | 1,317 | $59K | 14.6% | 14.2% | 7% | C− |
| 3,884 | Kinmundy Township IL | 1,084 | $58K | 12.6% | 6.9% | 4% | C− |
| 3,885 | Grant Township IN | 1,094 | $60K | 12.2% | 3.4% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Sundown, 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 Sundown: questions
What is the median household income in Sundown?
$58,594 (±$39,921) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sundown?
14.6%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sundown?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sundown work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lubbock (23%, 35 mi), Levelland (15%, 11 mi), Wolfforth (2%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sundown walkable?
Sundown is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sundown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sundown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sundown
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.