Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 4.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Des Arc’s
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Poverty touches 20.0% of residents, next to 16.0% for Arkansas as a whole. For jobs and income Des Arc is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Des Arc at work: what stands out
Where Des Arc’s Jobs & income grade comes from
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Des Arc’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Des Arc’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, Des Arc could be anywhere from D− to D.
The distance from Des Arc to work
About 28% 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.
Who leaves Des Arc for work, and who comes in
On a workday 567 residents head out to work, 103 work right here, and 504 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 (0.91 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.
12% of working residents work in Little Rock
Where Des Arc clocks in
12% of workers
6% of workers
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.
The kinds of work in Des Arc
607 jobs are based in Des Arc.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Des Arc, 2013 → 2023: 462 → 607. 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 Des Arc’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way for Des Arc’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Des Arc workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 617 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.
In Des Arc, the car does most of the work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.9% 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 633 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). 9.1% of Des Arc households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Des Arc’s commuters take a bus or train.
Des Arc and other U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 220 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,003 | West Fork AR | 2,373 | $78K | 3.1% | 3.5% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,327 | Fairlea WV | 1,312 | $24K | 27.6% | 2.4% | 9% | D− |
| 5,328 | Tombstone AZ | 1,376 | $35K | 15.5% | 0.8% | 36% | D− |
| 5,329 | Des Arc AR | 1,841 | $31K | 20.0% | 4.2% | 15% | D− |
| 5,330 | Tompkinsville KY | 2,235 | $39K | 27.3% | 7.4% | 29% | D− |
| 5,331 | Harrison MI | 2,171 | $39K | 25.5% | 0.8% | 11% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Des Arc, 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 Des Arc: questions
What is the median household income in Des Arc?
$30,921 (±$4,464) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Des Arc?
20.0%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Des Arc?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Des Arc work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Little Rock (12%, 51 mi), North Little Rock (6%, 44 mi), Stuttgart (5%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Des Arc walkable?
Des Arc is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Des Arc 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 Des Arc, from the people who make the trip.
More of Des Arc
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.