Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Where Wright earns its living
Wright grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability. About one in seven work in Wright itself; outside it, Gillette draws the most (20%, 36 miles). Below the poverty line: 27.3% of residents (Wyoming 10.5%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Wright, in brief
Wright’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Wright is Gillette, 36 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (90) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
37% 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 ↓
Wright makes and builds things
40% of the jobs based in Wright are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wright residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 40%. The jobs ↓
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 447 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Wright earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Wright is better than 7% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Wright’s grade up ($69,545, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.3%) is left out: Wright’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Wright could be anywhere from D− to B.
Half of Wright commutes less than 38 miles
About 37% 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.
A place that makes things: 40% of Wright’s jobs are in goods
405 jobs are based in Wright.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wright, 2013 → 2023: 419 → 405. 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 Wright’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Wright
On a workday 393 residents head out to work, 54 work right here, and 351 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 (0.91 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 places Wright commutes to
Where Wright clocks in
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.
Getting to work from Wright takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wright workers work from home, vs 9% across Wyoming. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 628 commuters (the 11% 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.
The commute in Wright is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wright is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Wright 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 707 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 Wright households have no vehicle (Wyoming 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wright’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200, Wright comes 4,751st on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 572 | Rafter J Ranch WY | 1,293 | $161K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 757 | Hoback WY | 1,316 | $147K | 1.7% | 1.8% | 11% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,014 | South Park WY | 2,093 | $116K | 3.5% | 0.0% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,749 | Badin NC | 1,915 | $53K | 19.6% | 7.4% | <1% | D |
| 4,750 | Pioneer OH | 1,419 | $45K | 21.8% | 5.1% | 10% | D |
| 4,751 | Wright WY | 1,659 | $70K | 27.3% | 2.3% | 12% | D |
| 4,752 | Milbridge ME | 1,316 | $61K | 18.4% | 10.2% | 16% | D |
| 4,753 | Marlette MI | 1,833 | $49K | 18.0% | 10.3% | 20% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Wright, 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 Wright: questions
What is the median household income in Wright?
$69,545 (±$40,753) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,176 across Wyoming and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wright?
27.3%, against 10.5% across Wyoming and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wright?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Wyoming and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wright work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gillette (20%, 36 mi), Casper (4%, 75 mi), Cheyenne (3%, 184 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wright walkable?
Wright is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wright 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 Wright, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wright
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.