Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Calico Rock ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
The poverty rate is 30.0%; Arkansas has 16.0%. Measured by household income, Calico Rock is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Calico Rock grades D− 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
What stands out about work in Calico Rock
A big share show a job far from home
41% 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 ↓
Commutes from Calico Rock are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. 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; with 214 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Calico Rock’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Calico Rock is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Calico Rock’s grade.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: Calico Rock’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Calico Rock stays D−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Calico Rock
About 41% 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.
Time on the road from Calico Rock: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Calico Rock workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 241 commuters (the 5% 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.
Who works in Calico Rock, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 165 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 341 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.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Commuting in to Calico Rock: where workers come from
Where Calico Rock clocks in
8% 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.
The kinds of work in Calico Rock
390 jobs are based in Calico Rock.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Calico Rock, 2013 → 2023: 429 → 390. 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 Calico Rock’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Calico Rock commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Calico Rock is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Calico Rock near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 255 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). 8.7% of Calico Rock households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Calico Rock’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Calico Rock compares with U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 134 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 221 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 335 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,436 | Lake Medina Shores TX | 1,411 | $47K | 31.1% | 6.8% | <1% | D− |
| 5,437 | Vernon AL | 1,823 | $28K | 34.8% | 12.1% | 26% | D− |
| 5,438 | Calico Rock AR | 2,003 | $27K | 30.0% | 1.9% | 23% | D− |
| 5,439 | Jenkins KY | 1,733 | $27K | 32.3% | 6.0% | 6% | D− |
| 5,440 | Evart MI | 1,789 | $34K | 35.1% | 4.8% | 32% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | 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 Calico Rock, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
Around Calico Rock: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Calico Rock workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calico Rock | – | D− | B | 16 min | $26,655 |
| Pineville | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Pineville: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Calico Rock’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Calico Rock: questions
What is the median household income in Calico Rock?
$26,655 (±$8,532) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Calico Rock?
30.0%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Calico Rock?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Calico Rock work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mountain Home (11%, 21 mi), Little Rock (8%, 97 mi), Melbourne (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Calico Rock walkable?
Calico Rock is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Calico Rock without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Calico Rock, from the people who make the trip.
More of Calico Rock
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.