Church of the Guardian Angel · Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Wallis has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
4% of workers have no commute at all, against 14% across Texas. 25.9% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. The two grades for Wallis are C− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Wallis
Wallis’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Wallis is Houston, 42 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (152) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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 ↓
Wallis workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 32 minutes each way, against 27 across Texas. Over a year that’s about 245 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 698 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Wallis’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Wallis is better than 19% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Wallis’ grade up (ahead of 71% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,102, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (26.3%) is left out: Wallis’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Wallis could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Half of Wallis commutes less than 33 miles
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily trip from Wallis: about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wallis workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 574 commuters (the 4% 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.
Wallis by day and by night
On a workday 655 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 244 people come in from elsewhere.
About 960 people are in Wallis on a workday afternoon, 30% fewer than live here.
0.41 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 2023, primary jobs.
22% of working residents work in Houston
Where Wallis clocks in
22% 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.
The kinds of work in Wallis
287 jobs are based in Wallis.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wallis, 2013 → 2023: 167 → 287. 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 Wallis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Wallis is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wallis is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Wallis near the same point nationally.
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). 0.9% of Wallis households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wallis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Wallis ranks 4,104th of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 31 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,102 | Grandview OK | 1,251 | $74K | 18.5% | 0.0% | <1% | C− |
| 4,103 | Rockwell IA | 1,039 | $61K | 14.8% | 0.9% | 8% | C− |
| 4,104 | Wallis TX | 1,372 | $43K | 25.9% | 26.3% | 6% | C− |
| 4,105 | Flatonia TX | 1,413 | $61K | 12.6% | 0.0% | 16% | C− |
| 4,106 | Ronald Township MI | 1,899 | $63K | 11.9% | 2.6% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Wallis, 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 Wallis: questions
What is the median household income in Wallis?
$43,102 (±$3,917) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wallis?
25.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wallis?
32 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wallis work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (22%, 42 mi), Rosenberg (5%, 16 mi), Sealy (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wallis walkable?
Wallis is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wallis without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wallis, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wallis
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.