ECR Kooi Bridge · Photo: Clayton B. Fraser · Public domainFor more than half of its working residents, Ranchester is a commute to Sheridan
Ranchester grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability. Only 5% stay in Ranchester for work; outside it, Sheridan is the main destination (55%, 13 miles). Working residents average 23 minutes each way (Wyoming 19, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ranchester and work: the main findings
Jobs & income in Ranchester: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Ranchester is better than 13% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Ranchester’s grade up ($69,464, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Ranchester’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, Ranchester could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Where the trip to work from Ranchester ends
Where Ranchester clocks in
55% of workers
3% 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.
How many people are in Ranchester by day
On a workday 353 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 304 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 (0.87 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.
Services make up most of the work in Ranchester
324 jobs are based in Ranchester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ranchester, 2013 → 2023: 380 → 324. 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 Ranchester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 23 minutes from Ranchester
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ranchester workers work from home, vs 9% across Wyoming. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 557 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Wyoming: 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 Ranchester goes to work
About 22% 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.
Ranchester is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ranchester is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ranchester 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 635 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). 0.6% of Ranchester households have no vehicle (Wyoming 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ranchester’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, Ranchester ranks 3,383rd of 4,312 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 375 | Rafter J Ranch WY | 1,293 | $161K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 502 | Hoback WY | 1,316 | $147K | 1.7% | 1.8% | 11% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 784 | Story WY | 1,054 | $114K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,381 | Elmore AL | 1,382 | $49K | 40.3% | 2.0% | 1% | D |
| 3,382 | Unadilla NY | 1,091 | $66K | 17.6% | 4.8% | 2% | D |
| 3,383 | Ranchester WY | 1,170 | $69K | 16.8% | 1.5% | 5% | D |
| 3,384 | Speaker Township MI | 1,330 | $54K | 11.1% | 12.2% | 2% | D |
| 3,385 | Hopkinton NY | 1,075 | $61K | 12.9% | 5.4% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Ranchester, the top three, the last and three more from Wyoming.
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 Ranchester: questions
What is the median household income in Ranchester?
$69,464 (±$16,845) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,176 across Wyoming and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ranchester?
16.8%, against 10.5% across Wyoming and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ranchester?
23 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Wyoming and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ranchester work?
5% work in town.
Is Ranchester walkable?
Ranchester is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ranchester without a car?
1% 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 Ranchester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ranchester
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.