Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track · Photo: James Rice · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Wendover are lower than in 93% of U.S. towns
Wendover grades D− for jobs and income and A for walkability. The poverty rate is 26.0%, where Utah as a whole has 8.5%. 6% of workers work from home, next to 18% for Utah as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Wendover and work: the main findings
42% of Wendover works in West Wendover
158 working residents, 42%, have their main job in West Wendover, NV, 3 miles away. That’s 5 times as many as work in Wendover itself. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
48% 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 ↓
Many Wendover workers cross into Nevada
40% of Wendover workers work outside Utah, most of them in Nevada, the Census survey finds. The commute map ↓
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 376 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Wendover’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Wendover is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Wendover’s grade.
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Wendover’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Wendover stays D−.
42% of working residents work in West Wendover
Where Wendover clocks in
42% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Wendover
About 48% 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 flow of workers through Wendover
On a workday 346 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 333 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 (0.97 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.
The 363 jobs based in Wendover
363 jobs are based in Wendover.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wendover, 2013 → 2023: 523 → 363. 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 Wendover’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Wendover: about 9 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wendover workers work from home, vs 18% across Utah. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 505 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Utah: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Wendover
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wendover is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Utah, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 540 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% 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). 11.2% of Wendover households have no vehicle (Utah 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wendover’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Wendover compares with U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Emigration Canyon UT | 1,417 | $191K | 2.7% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Lake Shore UT | 1,129 | $99K | 0.0% | 20.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 168 | Mantua UT | 1,389 | $142K | 2.4% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,697 | Vardaman MS | 1,060 | $38K | 44.2% | 2.8% | 5% | D− |
| 3,698 | Robert Lee TX | 1,061 | $34K | 27.0% | 3.1% | 26% | D− |
| 3,699 | Wendover UT | 1,135 | $44K | 26.0% | 2.7% | 8% | D− |
| 3,700 | Mentor Township MI | 1,101 | $43K | 23.3% | 9.3% | 10% | D− |
| 3,701 | Farmersville NY | 1,073 | $48K | 40.6% | 8.5% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Wendover, the top three, the last and three more from Utah.
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 Wendover: questions
What is the median household income in Wendover?
$44,173 (±$3,718) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,166 across Utah and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wendover?
26.0%, against 8.5% across Utah and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wendover?
9 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Utah and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wendover work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are West Wendover (42%, 3 mi), Dugway (5%, 75 mi), Salt Lake City (5%, 110 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wendover walkable?
Wendover is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wendover without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wendover, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wendover
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.