Household incomes in Horseshoe Bend trail those of 92% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Horseshoe Bend D−; getting around on foot earns it C−. The poverty rate is 26.2%, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%. About one in ten work in Horseshoe Bend itself; outside it, Melbourne draws the most (11%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Horseshoe Bend apart on work
Fewer than half of Horseshoe Bend workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Horseshoe Bend’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 657 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Horseshoe Bend
On income, poverty and job access, Horseshoe Bend is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #121 of 123 in Arkansas. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Horseshoe Bend’s grade.
Unemployment (10.1%) is left out: Horseshoe Bend’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Horseshoe Bend stays D−.
The kinds of work in Horseshoe Bend
234 jobs are based in Horseshoe Bend.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Horseshoe Bend, 2013 → 2023: 286 → 234. 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 Horseshoe Bend’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Horseshoe Bend commutes less than 31 miles
About 32% 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.
How a workday changes Horseshoe Bend
On a workday 595 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 172 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Horseshoe Bend on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.36 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Where people from Horseshoe Bend work
Where Horseshoe Bend clocks in
11% 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.
Getting to work from Horseshoe Bend takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Horseshoe Bend workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 718 commuters (the 10% 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 Horseshoe Bend, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Horseshoe Bend is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns, #100 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 796 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). 3.8% of Horseshoe Bend households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Horseshoe Bend’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Horseshoe Bend compares with U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 241 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 362 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,002 | East Brewton AL | 2,251 | $36K | 23.7% | 23.4% | 5% | D− |
| 5,003 | Melbourne AR | 1,892 | $39K | 30.8% | 5.6% | 25% | D− |
| 5,004 | Horseshoe Bend AR | 2,623 | $46K | 26.2% | 10.1% | 9% | D− |
| 5,005 | Alamo GA | 3,362 | $18K | 45.6% | 16.0% | 9% | D− |
| 5,006 | Abbeville GA | 2,819 | $42K | 41.7% | 9.8% | 8% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | 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 Horseshoe Bend, 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 Horseshoe Bend: questions
What is the median household income in Horseshoe Bend?
$46,080 (±$6,128) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Horseshoe Bend?
26.2%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Horseshoe Bend?
27 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Horseshoe Bend work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Melbourne (11%, 13 mi), Batesville (11%, 32 mi), Ash Flat (6%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Horseshoe Bend walkable?
Horseshoe Bend is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Horseshoe Bend without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Horseshoe Bend, from the people who make the trip.
More of Horseshoe Bend
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.