Households in Wortham earn less than those in 92% of U.S. towns
12.9% of residents are in poverty, against 13.8% across Texas. The two grades for Wortham are D for jobs and income and D for walkability. Only 5% work in Wortham itself; outside it, Mexia draws the most (9%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Wortham apart on work
The four measures behind Wortham’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Wortham is better than 11% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Wortham’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($46,316, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Wortham’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, Wortham could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How far Wortham’s workers travel
About 53% 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.
Wortham quiets down on a workday
On a workday 423 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 234 people come in from elsewhere.
About 850 people are in Wortham on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.58 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.
Where the trip to work from Wortham ends
Where Wortham 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.
What work there is in Wortham: 256 jobs
256 jobs are based in Wortham.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wortham, 2013 → 2023: 338 → 256. 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 Wortham’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wortham workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 376 commuters (the 7% 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.
Most trips from Wortham start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wortham is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 406 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). 5.0% of Wortham households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wortham’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Wortham ranks 2,502nd of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Weston TX | 1,140 | $144K | 2.8% | 0.7% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Randolph AFB TX | 1,240 | $113K | 2.8% | 3.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,500 | Appleton City MO | 1,096 | $49K | 10.9% | 2.4% | 12% | D |
| 2,501 | Metolius OR | 1,039 | $65K | 18.4% | 4.6% | <1% | D |
| 2,502 | Wortham TX | 1,041 | $46K | 12.9% | 5.1% | 5% | D |
| 2,503 | Witt Township IL | 1,007 | $62K | 16.8% | 3.7% | 4% | D |
| 2,504 | McKinley Township MI | 1,285 | $54K | 12.2% | 8.2% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Wortham, 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 Wortham: questions
What is the median household income in Wortham?
$46,316 (±$18,305) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wortham?
12.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wortham?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wortham work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mexia (9%, 8 mi), Dallas (9%, 71 mi), Corsicana (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wortham walkable?
Wortham is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wortham 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 Wortham, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wortham
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.