Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Booneville (10.0%) than in 94% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in Booneville for work; outside it, Fort Smith is the main destination (19%, 29 miles). Booneville grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Booneville is behind 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Booneville in brief
Booneville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Booneville is Fort Smith, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (273) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Booneville workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Booneville’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 ↓
Few Booneville workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 9% across Arkansas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
The figures behind Booneville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Booneville is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #101 of 123 in Arkansas. The poverty rate holds Booneville’s grade up (16.7%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Booneville could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How far Booneville’s workers travel
About 25% 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.
The kinds of work in Booneville
1,145 jobs are based in Booneville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Booneville, 2013 → 2023: 1,299 → 1,145. 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 Booneville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, longer than most of Arkansas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Booneville workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,592 commuters (the 3% 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.
A workday in Booneville: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,168 residents head out to work, 278 work right here, and 867 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 (0.79 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 Booneville work
Where Booneville clocks in
19% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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.
Driving is how Booneville gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Booneville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns, #21 of 123 in Arkansas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,645 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 Booneville households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Booneville’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200, and where Booneville sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 174 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 218 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 415 | Highfill AR | 3,676 | $93K | 4.2% | 0.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,024 | Eastland TX | 3,737 | $52K | 24.9% | 6.3% | 25% | D |
| 4,025 | Haleyville AL | 4,303 | $42K | 25.2% | 5.6% | 25% | D |
| 4,026 | Booneville AR | 3,836 | $50K | 16.7% | 10.0% | 19% | D |
| 4,027 | Clarion PA | 4,037 | $47K | 23.9% | 9.8% | 16% | D |
| 4,028 | Oxford Township OH | 4,637 | $54K | 31.3% | 16.7% | 20% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | 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 Booneville, 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 Booneville: questions
What is the median household income in Booneville?
$50,459 (±$9,004) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Booneville?
16.7%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Booneville?
26 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Booneville work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Smith (19%, 29 mi), Paris (5%, 15 mi), Russellville (3%, 45 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Booneville walkable?
Booneville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Booneville without a car?
2% 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 Booneville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Booneville
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.