Willow Grove has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
282 jobs are based in Willow Grove, against 943 working residents. The two grades for Willow Grove are B+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 1% work in Willow Grove itself; outside it, Waco draws the most (43%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Willow Grove
Willow Grove and Waco trade workers both ways
Waco is the top workplace for Willow Grove residents (43%) and also where the most people who work in Willow Grove come from (25% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Willow Grove is a place people come home to
There are 282 jobs based in Willow Grove, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Willow Grove has about 1,400 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% 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 ↓
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 943 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Willow Grove’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Willow Grove is better than 74% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Willow Grove’s grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Willow Grove’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, Willow Grove could be anywhere from B to A.
Where people from Willow Grove work
Where Willow Grove clocks in
Lines 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.
Who leaves Willow Grove for work, and who comes in
On a workday 933 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 272 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Willow Grove on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Half of Willow Grove commutes less than 11 miles
About 33% 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.
In Willow Grove, 52% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Willow Grove, 2013 → 2023: 211 → 282. 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 Willow Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Willow Grove, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Willow Grove workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 772 commuters (the 15% 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 Willow Grove, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Willow Grove is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 912 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 Willow Grove households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Willow Grove’s commuters take a bus or train.
Willow Grove is 958th of 5,148 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| 23 | Shoreacres TX | 1,535 | $131K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 956 | Dodgeville WI | 1,610 | $117K | 4.9% | 2.1% | 2% | B+ |
| 957 | Casa Conejo CA | 2,671 | $148K | 4.2% | 10.4% | 1% | B+ |
| 958 | Willow Grove TX | 2,080 | $89K | 7.3% | 1.3% | 1% | B+ |
| 959 | Mineral Point WI | 2,555 | $81K | 3.5% | 0.8% | 21% | B+ |
| 960 | Russell MA | 1,637 | $109K | 6.3% | 1.8% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Willow Grove, 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 Willow Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Willow Grove?
$89,036 (±$7,940) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Willow Grove?
7.3%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Willow Grove?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Willow Grove work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waco (43%, 6 mi), Woodway (3%, 6 mi), Dallas (3%, 91 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Willow Grove walkable?
Willow Grove is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Willow Grove 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 Willow Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Willow Grove
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.