Lee's Chapel Church and Masonic Hall · Photo: Kennethrorie · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Cave City earn less than those in 88% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 19.7% of residents, next to 16.0% for Arkansas as a whole. Jobs and income earn Cave City D; getting around on foot earns it C−. About one in seven work in Cave City itself; outside it, Batesville draws the most (32%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cave City: the figures worth knowing
One in three of Cave City works in Batesville
225 working residents, 32%, have their main job in Batesville, 13 miles away. That’s more than work in Cave City itself. The commute map ↓
Cave City has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cave City went from 591 in 2013 to 798 in 2023, +35%. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Cave City workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Cave City’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% 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 702 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Cave City’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Cave City is better than 5% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cave City’s grade.
Unemployment (4.7%) is left out: Cave City’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Cave City could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Commuting out of Cave City: the destinations
Where Cave City clocks in
6% 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.
What the 798 jobs in Cave City are
798 jobs are based in Cave City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cave City, 2013 → 2023: 591 → 798. 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 Cave City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Cave City
On a workday 584 residents head out to work, 118 work right here, and 680 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 (1.14 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.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Arkansas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cave City workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 743 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.
Miles to work from Cave City
About 26% 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 commute in Cave City is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cave City is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cave City 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 758 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). 7.9% of Cave City households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cave City’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Cave City 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 5,042 | Milford Township IL | 1,437 | $54K | 18.8% | 2.6% | 11% | D |
| 5,043 | West Paris ME | 1,773 | $56K | 24.1% | 4.5% | 7% | D |
| 5,044 | Cave City AR | 1,987 | $50K | 19.7% | 4.7% | 17% | D |
| 5,045 | Croswell MI | 2,263 | $55K | 17.1% | 11.6% | 16% | D |
| 5,046 | El Cenizo TX | 2,457 | $49K | 32.9% | 5.9% | 0% | 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 Cave City, 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 Cave City: questions
What is the median household income in Cave City?
$49,800 (±$12,238) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cave City?
19.7%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cave City?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cave City work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Batesville (32%, 13 mi), Little Rock (6%, 96 mi), Searcy (2%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cave City walkable?
Cave City is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cave City 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 Cave City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cave City
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.