Beebe Railroad Station · Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 4.0Beebe’s household incomes are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Beebe for work; outside it, Little Rock is the main destination (17%, 35 miles). Below the poverty line: 15.1% of residents, against 16.0% across Arkansas. The two grades for Beebe are B− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Beebe and work: the main findings
Beebe’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Beebe is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #40 of 123 in Arkansas. Unemployment holds Beebe’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($59,476, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Beebe could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The distance from Beebe to work
About 17% 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.
How a workday changes Beebe
On a workday 2,937 residents head out to work, 466 work right here, and 2,269 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 Beebe work
Where Beebe clocks in
17% of workers
8% 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.
The 2,735 jobs based in Beebe
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Beebe, 2013 → 2023: 2,452 → 2,735. 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 Beebe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Beebe: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Beebe workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,664 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.
Getting around Beebe: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Beebe is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns, #53 of 123 in Arkansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.3% of 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 3,827 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). 8.2% of Beebe households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Beebe’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,773rd of 2,806: where Beebe ranks among U.S. towns of 6,600 to 12,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 347 | Pea Ridge AR | 11,233 | $96K | 3.2% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 443 | Farmington AR | 10,658 | $90K | 3.8% | 0.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 475 | Cave Springs AR | 6,701 | $146K | 1.8% | 4.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,771 | Park City IL | 7,893 | $60K | 9.6% | 7.1% | 1% | B− |
| 1,772 | White City OR | 10,750 | $71K | 14.3% | 3.4% | 4% | B− |
| 1,773 | Beebe AR | 9,377 | $59K | 15.1% | 2.8% | 14% | B− |
| 1,774 | Crete NE | 7,747 | $77K | 11.6% | 4.4% | 28% | B− |
| 1,775 | Westview FL | 12,107 | $58K | 20.9% | 3.9% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,806 | 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 Beebe, 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 Beebe: questions
What is the median household income in Beebe?
$59,476 (±$10,386) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Beebe?
15.1%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Beebe?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Beebe work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Little Rock (17%, 35 mi), Searcy (11%, 15 mi), North Little Rock (8%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Beebe walkable?
Beebe is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Beebe without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Beebe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Beebe
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.