Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Fairfield Bay are lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
11.4% of residents live below the poverty line, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%. Jobs and income earn Fairfield Bay D; getting around on foot earns it D. About one in five work in Fairfield Bay itself; outside it, Clinton draws the most (10%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Fairfield Bay
Fewer than half of Fairfield Bay workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Fairfield Bay’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 ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Fairfield Bay
41% of Fairfield Bay residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 22% of the jobs based in Fairfield Bay pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 81% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Fairfield Bay workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 28 minutes each way, against 23 across Arkansas. Over a year that’s about 215 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 593 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Fairfield Bay’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fairfield Bay is better than 12% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Fairfield Bay’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Fairfield Bay’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, Fairfield Bay could be anywhere from D− to C.
Inside Fairfield Bay’s 483 jobs
483 jobs are based in Fairfield Bay.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairfield Bay, 2014 → 2024: 380 → 483. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Fairfield Bay’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 28 minutes in Fairfield Bay
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairfield Bay workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 551 commuters (the 16% 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 Fairfield Bay: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 481 residents head out to work, 112 work right here, and 371 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 (0.81 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The places Fairfield Bay commutes to
Where Fairfield Bay clocks in
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.
How far Fairfield Bay goes to work
About 29% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Fairfield Bay is a driving town
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 653 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). 7.0% of Fairfield Bay households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fairfield Bay’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000, Fairfield Bay ranks 4,724th of 5,641 on jobs and income
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 233 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 356 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,722 | Dalzell SC | 2,946 | $47K | 15.3% | 10.8% | 1% | D |
| 4,723 | Horse Pasture VA | 2,236 | $54K | 22.7% | 2.5% | 2% | D |
| 4,724 | Fairfield Bay AR | 2,198 | $57K | 11.4% | 4.0% | 19% | D |
| 4,725 | Bloomfield IN | 2,306 | $55K | 12.2% | 9.2% | 14% | D |
| 4,726 | Granite OK | 1,609 | $60K | 12.7% | 5.0% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Fairfield Bay, 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 2024, 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 Fairfield Bay: questions
What is the median household income in Fairfield Bay?
$56,594 (±$12,128) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairfield Bay?
11.4%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairfield Bay?
28 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairfield Bay work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clinton (10%, 11 mi), Conway (6%, 38 mi), Little Rock (5%, 61 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Fairfield Bay walkable?
Fairfield Bay is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairfield Bay without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairfield Bay, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairfield Bay
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.