Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Terrell has higher unemployment (7.6%) than 86% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Terrell itself; outside it, Dallas draws the most (17%, 28 miles). Jobs and income earn Terrell C+; getting around on foot earns it A−. 5% of workers have no commute at all (Texas 14%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Terrell in brief
Terrell draws workers from far and wide
The 12,940 jobs in Terrell are filled from a wide area. Terrell’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 20%; the other 68% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Terrell’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Terrell is Dallas, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (1,456) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
What’s behind Terrell’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Terrell is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #385 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Terrell’s grade up (ahead of 85% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Terrell could be anywhere from C− to B.
Where Terrell goes to work
Where Terrell clocks in
3% 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.
The commute from Terrell, by distance
About 20% 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.
How a workday changes Terrell
On a workday 7,127 residents head out to work, 1,547 work right here, and 11,393 people come in from elsewhere.
About 28,000 people are in Terrell on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 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.
Inside Terrell’s 12,940 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Terrell, 2013 → 2023: 10,776 → 12,940. 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 Terrell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Terrell
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Terrell workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,862 commuters (the 5% 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.
Terrell is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Terrell is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns, #69 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.6% 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 8,271 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 62% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 44% 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). 5.8% of Terrell households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Terrell’s commuters take a bus or train.
Terrell next to U.S. towns of 17,000 to 32,000: 1,252nd of 1,577 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Colleyville TX | 25,727 | $218K | 2.5% | 3.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Corinth TX | 25,297 | $121K | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,250 | Loves Park IL | 23,712 | $62K | 14.4% | 6.3% | 12% | C+ |
| 1,251 | Weathersfield Township OH | 24,277 | $52K | 14.8% | 4.8% | 13% | C+ |
| 1,252 | Terrell TX | 23,921 | $66K | 15.9% | 7.6% | 18% | C+ |
| 1,253 | Liberty Township OH | 21,208 | $57K | 18.6% | 4.7% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,254 | Sun Valley NV | 22,228 | $77K | 16.8% | 6.7% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,577 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Terrell, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
How Terrell compares with the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Terrell’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 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 Terrell: questions
What is the median household income in Terrell?
$65,842 (±$6,108) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Terrell?
15.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Terrell?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Terrell work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dallas (17%, 28 mi), Plano (4%, 34 mi), Fort Worth (3%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Terrell walkable?
Terrell is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Terrell without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 44% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Terrell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Terrell
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.