Olton is a city in Lamb County, Texas. It has 1,552 residents. Olton, Texas has a quality-of-life score of 20 out of 100 (low), ranking #12,493 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Texas it ranks #505 of 1,016 cities and towns. It ranks best on home price to income ratio (low), grocery stores (high) and unemployment rate (low). It ranks worst on uninsured residents (under 65) (high), arts, entertainment and recreation (low) and dentists (low).
20Low
Quality-of-life score
#12,493 of 15,651 cities and towns
Texas
#505 of 1,016 in TX
Population
1,552 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,142.2 /mi²
FIPS code
4854012
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety49#7,958/15,637
Economy24#11,953/15,631
Housing59#6,075/14,977
Health22#12,173/15,609
Healthcare3#15,230/15,650
Environment72#4,378/15,453
Education22#12,134/15,649
Infrastructure33#10,515/15,650
Community22#12,240/15,651
Leisure & amenities14#13,382/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Olton, Texas ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Lamb County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Olton, Texas five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Olton, Texas in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Olton is mostly in Lamb County.
Over about five years, Olton, Texas improved on 1 of 11 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 10 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved1
Broadband+27 points55.6% → 82.5%
Broadband subscriptions
55.6% → 82.5%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+27 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±11.2 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 3 → 14 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 96% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 11 measures
Change of every measure of Olton, Texas between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
17.2 min2015-2019
13.5 min2020-2024
−3.7 min
Within the margin of error
84%
Bachelor's degree or higher
10.8%2015-2019
7.6%2020-2024
−3.2 points
Within the margin of error
12%
Broadband subscriptions
55.6%2015-2019
82.5%2020-2024
+27 points
Improved
96%
Effective property tax rate
1.47%2015-2019
1.09%2020-2024
−0.4 points
Within the margin of error
83%
High school diploma or higher
68.1%2015-2019
71.9%2020-2024
+3.8 points
Within the margin of error
75%
Home price to income ratio
1.4×2015-2019
1.1×2020-2024
−0.3×
Within the margin of error
90%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4352015-2019
0.4202020-2024
−0.015
Within the margin of error
64%
Median household income
$44,0762015-2019
$46,0292020-2024
+4.4%
Within the margin of error
11%
Poverty rate
12.6%2015-2019
18.4%2020-2024
+5.9 points
Within the margin of error
10%
Rent as share of income
23.1%2015-2019
23.4%2020-2024
+0.3 points
Within the margin of error
53%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
31.2%2015-2019
37.7%2020-2024
+6.5 points
Within the margin of error
7%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Olton, Texas itself moved +1.6 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Household income
548 households (±92)
Olton, Texas
Texas share
Under $25k24%†130
Under $25k
24%±10.6 points
130 households±62 (90% margin of error)
15%in Texas
15%in United States
−3.9 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k28%†154
$25k–50k
28%±9.8 points
154 households±60 (90% margin of error)
17%in Texas
17%in United States
+1.3 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k18%†96
$50k–75k
18%±8.0 points
96 households±47 (90% margin of error)
16%in Texas
16%in United States
−6.5 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k19%†104
$75k–100k
19%±8.2 points
104 households±48 (90% margin of error)
13%in Texas
13%in United States
+10.4 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k4.7%†26
$100k–150k
4.7%±3.7 points
26 households±21 (90% margin of error)
17%in Texas
18%in United States
−3.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k3.8%†21
$150k–200k
3.8%±4.7 points
21 households±26 (90% margin of error)
9.5%in Texas
9.6%in United States
+3.0 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more3.1%†17
$200k or more
3.1%±3.6 points
17 households±20 (90% margin of error)
12%in Texas
13%in United States
−0.8 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
Biggest shift since 2015–2019: $75k–100k (+10.4 points).
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Lamb County, the county holding most of Olton's residents.
Lamb County has 230 employer establishments, 181 for every 10,000 residents (0.73× the US rate of 248; 0.83× Texas's), with 2,152 paid employees at an average annual pay of $45,561. The Census Bureau also counts 743 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
230
743 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
181
US 248 · Texas 218
Paid employees
2,152
Average annual pay
$45,561
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Lamb County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 12,713 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
