Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 3.0Arkadelphia is a college town: 34% of residents are students
About one in three work in Arkadelphia; the top destination outside it is Little Rock (10%, 58 miles). Jobs and income earn Arkadelphia D; getting around on foot earns it A−. Family incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Arkadelphia: the gist
Arkadelphia’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Arkadelphia is Little Rock, 58 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (347) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Arkadelphia are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Arkadelphia workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Arkadelphia’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Arkadelphia
Job access by car holds Arkadelphia’s grade up (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.7%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (15% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 20.7%, against 28.9% for all residents. Unemployment (4.2%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($66,845), since student households pull the household median down ($48,657).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Arkadelphia could be anywhere from D to C−.
How many miles Arkadelphia commutes
About 29% 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.
From Arkadelphia, about 17 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Arkadelphia workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,259 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Arkansas: 87% 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.
Jobs in Arkadelphia: what the 4,782 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Arkadelphia, 2013 → 2023: 5,482 → 4,782. 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 Arkadelphia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Arkadelphia by day and by night
On a workday 2,233 residents head out to work, 1,264 work right here, and 3,518 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Arkadelphia on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 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.
Where the trip to work from Arkadelphia ends
Where Arkadelphia clocks in
10% of workers
7% 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.
In Arkadelphia, walking beats the bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,509 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). 7.3% of Arkadelphia households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Arkadelphia’s commuters take a bus or train.
Arkadelphia next to U.S. towns of 6,900 to 13,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 344 | Pea Ridge AR | 11,233 | $96K | 3.2% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 444 | Farmington AR | 10,658 | $90K | 3.8% | 0.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 488 | Lowell AR | 12,184 | $96K | 6.9% | 1.4% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,615 | Savannah TN | 7,689 | $40K | 29.8% | 4.5% | 33% | D |
| 2,616 | Crossville TN | 13,113 | $49K | 22.9% | 7.2% | 48% | D |
| 2,617 | Arkadelphia AR | 9,916 | $49K | 28.9% | 4.2% | 36% | D |
| 2,618 | Newberry SC | 10,891 | $51K | 31.5% | 6.9% | 20% | D |
| 2,619 | Franklin Township IN | 7,070 | $45K | 24.0% | 8.2% | 11% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,792 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Arkadelphia, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
Next door to Arkadelphia
The biggest share goes to Caddo Valley (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Arkadelphia workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkadelphia | – | D | A− | 17 min | $48,657 |
| Caddo Valley | 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Caddo Valley: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Arkadelphia’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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.
- Students. 34% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Arkadelphia: questions
What is the median household income in Arkadelphia?
$48,657 (±$7,358) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Arkadelphia?
28.9% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 20.7%. Arkansas: 16.0%.
How long is the commute from Arkadelphia?
17 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Arkadelphia work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Little Rock (10%, 58 mi), Hot Springs (7%, 25 mi), Caddo Valley (3%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Arkadelphia walkable?
Arkadelphia is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Arkadelphia without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Arkadelphia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Arkadelphia
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.