Fredonia Cemetery Historic Section · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Bald Knob earn less than those in 90% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 16.1% (Arkansas 16.0%). For jobs and income Bald Knob is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (C). About one in ten work in Bald Knob; the top destination outside it is Searcy (28%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Bald Knob apart
28% of Bald Knob works in Searcy
252 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Searcy, 11 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Bald Knob itself. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 ↓
Fewer than half of Bald Knob workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Bald Knob’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 16% 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; with 910 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Bald Knob’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Bald Knob’s grade up (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($48,355, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bald Knob could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Where people from Bald Knob work
Where Bald Knob clocks in
5% 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 far Bald Knob’s workers travel
About 32% 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.
What Bald Knob’s employers do
590 jobs are based in Bald Knob.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bald Knob, 2013 → 2023: 791 → 590. 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 Bald Knob’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Bald Knob
On a workday 811 residents head out to work, 99 work right here, and 491 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Bald Knob on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.65 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
From Bald Knob, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bald Knob workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 950 commuters (the 2% 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.
In Bald Knob, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 5.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 969 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). 13.4% of Bald Knob households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bald Knob’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bald Knob is 4,139th of 4,868 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 128 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 226 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 340 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,137 | Hopewell Township PA | 1,881 | $64K | 16.6% | 4.5% | 2% | D |
| 4,138 | Monte Alto TX | 2,350 | $30K | 67.1% | 2.5% | 3% | D |
| 4,139 | Bald Knob AR | 2,548 | $48K | 16.1% | 6.5% | 11% | D |
| 4,140 | Ponderay ID | 2,024 | $51K | 14.6% | 6.5% | 16% | D |
| 4,141 | Westville IL | 3,029 | $55K | 18.6% | 8.5% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,868 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Bald Knob, 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 Bald Knob: questions
What is the median household income in Bald Knob?
$48,355 (±$8,204) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bald Knob?
16.1%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bald Knob?
18 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bald Knob work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Searcy (28%, 10 mi), Little Rock (5%, 60 mi), Batesville (3%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bald Knob walkable?
Bald Knob is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bald Knob without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bald Knob, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bald Knob
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.