Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 3.0Dumas has lower household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 33.9% of residents; Arkansas has 16.0%. Jobs and income earn Dumas D−; getting around on foot earns it C−. About two in five work in Dumas itself; outside it, Pine Bluff draws the most (5%, 38 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Dumas at work: what stands out
Dumas makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Dumas are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dumas residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 37%. The jobs ↓
Few Dumas workers work from home
Only 2% 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 Dumas’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dumas is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #122 of 123 in Arkansas. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Dumas’ grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dumas could be anywhere from D− to D.
Making and building: 46% of jobs based in Dumas
1,913 jobs are based in Dumas.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dumas, 2013 → 2023: 1,931 → 1,913. 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 Dumas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Dumas: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dumas workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,168 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.
Dumas fills up on a workday
On a workday 780 residents head out to work, 606 work right here, and 1,307 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Dumas on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.38 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 Dumas work
Where Dumas clocks in
5% of workers
5% 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.
How far Dumas goes to work
About 22% 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 Dumas is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dumas is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns, #107 of 123 in Arkansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 1,191 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). 17.8% of Dumas households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dumas’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Dumas compares with U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 181 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 277 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,503 | Jackson AL | 4,452 | $38K | 26.1% | 18.4% | 23% | D− |
| 4,504 | Evergreen AL | 3,272 | $41K | 39.0% | 16.7% | 28% | D− |
| 4,505 | Dumas AR | 3,476 | $35K | 33.9% | 9.8% | 44% | D− |
| 4,506 | Milan NM | 2,468 | $36K | 32.2% | 3.7% | 10% | D− |
| 4,507 | Weed CA | 2,603 | $39K | 33.6% | 11.7% | 26% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,535 | 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 Dumas, 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 Dumas: questions
What is the median household income in Dumas?
$34,787 (±$8,279) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dumas?
33.9%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dumas?
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 Dumas work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pine Bluff (5%, 38 mi), Little Rock (5%, 77 mi), Monticello (4%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dumas walkable?
Dumas is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dumas without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dumas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dumas
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.