Nutt-Trussell Building · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Fordyce’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
1% of workers work from home, where Arkansas as a whole has 9%. 17.1% of residents are in poverty (Arkansas 16.0%). For jobs and income Fordyce is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Fordyce apart on work
Fordyce is where the jobs are
Fordyce has 1,891 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Fordyce workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Fordyce’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few Fordyce workers work from home
Only 1% 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.
How Fordyce earns its Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Fordyce’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down (12.4%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fordyce could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Fordyce fills up on a workday
On a workday 596 residents head out to work, 462 work right here, and 1,429 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Fordyce on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
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.
What the 1,891 jobs in Fordyce are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fordyce, 2013 → 2023: 1,940 → 1,891. 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 Fordyce’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Fordyce: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fordyce workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,232 commuters (the 1% 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.
Where Fordyce’s workers come from
Where Fordyce clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Fordyce
About 24% 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.
In Fordyce, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,240 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). 7.7% of Fordyce households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fordyce’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200, and where Fordyce sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 160 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 207 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 252 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,411 | Prague OK | 2,427 | $51K | 29.2% | 3.6% | 13% | D− |
| 4,412 | Richland Township MI | 2,778 | $51K | 21.1% | 15.1% | 6% | D− |
| 4,413 | Fordyce AR | 3,141 | $38K | 17.1% | 12.4% | 44% | D− |
| 4,414 | Kellogg ID | 2,456 | $51K | 19.2% | 10.8% | 30% | D− |
| 4,415 | Bamberg SC | 2,920 | $50K | 31.8% | 21.8% | 14% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | 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 Fordyce, 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 Fordyce: questions
What is the median household income in Fordyce?
$38,079 (±$11,972) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fordyce?
17.1%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fordyce?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fordyce work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Little Rock (4%, 63 mi), Sheridan (3%, 35 mi), Camden (2%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fordyce walkable?
Fordyce is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fordyce 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 Fordyce, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fordyce
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.