Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY 3.0Tahoka has higher unemployment (5.9%) than 73% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Tahoka C−; getting around on foot earns it C. 3% of workers have no commute at all, where Texas as a whole has 14%. About one in five stay in Tahoka for work; outside it, Lubbock is the main destination (25%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Tahoka apart on work
Tahoka and Lubbock trade workers both ways
Lubbock is the top workplace for Tahoka residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Tahoka come from (24% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Tahoka workers work from home
Only 3% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 881 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Tahoka earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Tahoka is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #520 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Tahoka’s grade up (ahead of 41% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tahoka could be anywhere from D to B.
Where people from Tahoka work
Where Tahoka clocks in
2% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Tahoka
About 30% 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.
About 22 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tahoka workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,078 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.
Tahoka by day and by night
On a workday 700 residents head out to work, 181 work right here, and 401 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Tahoka on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.66 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 2024, primary jobs.
Tahoka is a services town
582 jobs are based in Tahoka.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tahoka, 2014 → 2024: 455 → 582. 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 Tahoka’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Driving is how Tahoka gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tahoka is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns, #451 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% 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 1,109 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). 5.1% of Tahoka households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tahoka’s commuters take a bus or train.
Tahoka is 3,716th of 4,868 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,714 | Big Lake TX | 2,783 | $71K | 12.2% | 5.6% | 27% | C− |
| 3,715 | Shandaken NY | 2,813 | $66K | 19.9% | 3.5% | 20% | C− |
| 3,716 | Tahoka TX | 2,533 | $62K | 18.3% | 5.9% | 21% | C− |
| 3,717 | Browning Township IL | 2,353 | $53K | 14.1% | 2.5% | 4% | C− |
| 3,718 | Bon Secour AL | 2,789 | $61K | 17.7% | 5.0% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Tahoka, 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 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 Tahoka: questions
What is the median household income in Tahoka?
$62,039 (±$21,223) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tahoka?
18.3%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tahoka?
22 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tahoka work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lubbock (25%, 28 mi), New Home (2%, 13 mi), Amarillo (2%, 141 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Tahoka walkable?
Tahoka is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tahoka without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tahoka, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tahoka
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.