Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Ashdown (10.2%) is higher than in 95% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Ashdown is behind 80% of U.S. towns. For jobs and income Ashdown is better than 8% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (C−). About one in five work in Ashdown itself; outside it, Texarkana draws the most (13%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ashdown, in a few figures
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Ashdown
Job access by car holds Ashdown’s grade up (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ashdown could be anywhere from D− to C+.
About 35 minutes each way for Ashdown’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ashdown workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,555 commuters (the 4% 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.
How a workday changes Ashdown
On a workday 1,303 residents head out to work, 346 work right here, and 977 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 (0.80 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 people from Ashdown work
Where Ashdown clocks in
13% of workers
11% of workers
4% 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.
Inside Ashdown’s 1,323 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ashdown, 2013 → 2023: 1,700 → 1,323. 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 Ashdown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Ashdown to work
About 21% 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.
Getting around Ashdown: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Arkansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,616 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). 5.8% of Ashdown households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ashdown’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ashdown compares with U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 217 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 411 | Highfill AR | 3,676 | $93K | 4.2% | 0.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,817 | Experiment GA | 3,387 | $33K | 33.7% | 12.4% | 1% | D |
| 3,818 | Mountain View HI | 3,756 | $69K | 20.9% | 7.7% | 3% | D |
| 3,819 | Ashdown AR | 4,135 | $56K | 20.8% | 10.2% | 21% | D |
| 3,820 | New Roads LA | 4,216 | $51K | 24.6% | 10.0% | 22% | D |
| 3,821 | Alva OK | 4,880 | $41K | 25.9% | 4.9% | 43% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,112 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Ashdown, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
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 Ashdown: questions
What is the median household income in Ashdown?
$55,625 (±$25,955) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ashdown?
20.8%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ashdown?
35 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ashdown work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Texarkana (13%, 16 mi), Texarkana (11%, 18 mi), De Queen (4%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ashdown walkable?
Ashdown is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ashdown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ashdown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ashdown
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.