Mills House · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Kensett has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
Jobs and income earn Kensett D; getting around on foot earns it C+. Measured by household income, Kensett is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 28.0%, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Kensett, in a few figures
Nearly half of Kensett works in Searcy
197 working residents, 45%, have their main job in Searcy, 3.6 miles away across the town line. That’s 23 times as many as work in Kensett itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Kensett are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. 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; with 441 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Kensett’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Kensett is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Kensett’s grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,207, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Kensett’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, Kensett stays D.
45% of working residents work in Searcy
Where Kensett clocks in
5% 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.
From Kensett, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kensett workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 674 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.
How a workday changes Kensett
On a workday 432 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 184 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Kensett on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
0.44 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.
What work there is in Kensett: 193 jobs
193 jobs are based in Kensett.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kensett, 2013 → 2023: 297 → 193. 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 Kensett’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Kensett
About 27% 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.
For most of Kensett, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kensett is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Kensett near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 694 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). 6.4% of Kensett households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kensett’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kensett is 5,024th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 538 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,022 | Clayton Township MI | 1,014 | $51K | 12.7% | 3.6% | 6% | D |
| 5,023 | Sheridan Township MI | 1,384 | $50K | 13.5% | 2.0% | 3% | D |
| 5,024 | Kensett AR | 1,425 | $31K | 28.0% | 5.3% | 2% | D |
| 5,025 | Westport IN | 1,406 | $49K | 22.7% | 10.4% | 4% | D |
| 5,026 | Laurium MI | 1,891 | $54K | 16.0% | 3.6% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Kensett, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
Work next door: 45% of Kensett’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Searcy. Darker towns draw more of Kensett’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Kensett: questions
What is the median household income in Kensett?
$31,207 (±$8,381) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kensett?
28.0%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kensett?
18 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kensett work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Searcy (45%, 4 mi), Little Rock (5%, 52 mi), Conway (3%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kensett walkable?
Kensett is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kensett without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kensett, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kensett
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.