The Settlement Historic District · Photo: Jim Evans · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Texas City (6.5%) is higher than in 78% of U.S. towns
At home: 6% of workers have no commute at all (Texas State 14%). For jobs and income Texas City is better than 39% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (B). About one in seven stay in Texas City for work; outside it, Galveston is the main destination (18%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Texas City
The figures behind Texas City’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Texas City’s grade up (ahead of 84% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Texas City could be anywhere from C to B−.
How many people are in Texas City by day
On a workday 18,390 residents head out to work, 3,592 work right here, and 14,518 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 (0.82 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Out of Texas City to work: where people go
Where Texas City clocks in
18% of workers
17% of workers
5% 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.
Goods, not services: 31% of the jobs in Texas City
18,110 jobs are based in Texas City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Texas City, 2014 → 2024: 18,252 → 18,110. 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 Texas City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Texas City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Texas City workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas State. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 23,813 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Texas State: 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.
How far it is to work from Texas City
About 17% 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.
Driving is how Texas City gets around
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 25,288 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). 7.0% of Texas City households have no vehicle (Texas State 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Texas City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 42,000 to 81,000, Texas City ranks 585th of 737 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Keller TX | 46,078 | $175K | 3.4% | 2.7% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Flower Mound TX | 79,540 | $161K | 4.3% | 3.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 583 | Farmington NM | 46,055 | $69K | 17.4% | 3.9% | 58% | C+ |
| 584 | Rosenberg TX | 42,701 | $66K | 20.2% | 5.9% | 15% | C+ |
| 585 | Texas City TX | 59,733 | $69K | 16.2% | 6.5% | 16% | C+ |
| 586 | Kenner LA | 65,136 | $64K | 15.4% | 6.6% | 16% | C+ |
| 587 | Lafayette IN | 71,238 | $54K | 17.8% | 3.6% | 49% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 737 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 25% | 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 Texas City, the top three, the last and three more from Texas State.
27% of Texas City works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Texas City workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas City | – | C+ | B | 26 min | $68,776 |
| San Leon | under 2% | B− | C− | 33 min | $75,446 |
| Dickinson | 2% | B | B− | 29 min | $91,779 |
| Bacliff | under 2% | C− | B | 29 min | $51,458 |
| La Marque | 2% | C+ | C+ | 28 min | $71,102 |
| League City | 5% | A | B− | 30 min | $121,099 |
| Galveston | 18% | C | A | 20 min | $55,631 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Galveston. Darker towns draw more of Texas City’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 Texas City: questions
What is the median household income in Texas City?
$68,776 (±$5,691) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas State and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Texas City?
16.2%, against 13.8% across Texas State and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Texas City?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas State and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Texas City work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Galveston (18%, 17 mi), Houston (17%, 39 mi), League City (5%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Texas City walkable?
Texas City is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Texas City without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Texas City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Texas City
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.