Van Lyell House · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Work means Hot Springs for about two in five of Lake Hamilton’s working residents
484 jobs are based in Lake Hamilton; 724 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Lake Hamilton C+; getting around on foot earns it C. At 22 minutes each way, commutes from Lake Hamilton run about the Arkansas average.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Lake Hamilton in brief
41% of Lake Hamilton works in Hot Springs
297 working residents, 41%, have their main job in Hot Springs, 4.4 miles away across the town line. That’s 14 times as many as work in Lake Hamilton itself. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Lake Hamilton workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Lake Hamilton’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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 724 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Lake Hamilton earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Lake Hamilton is better than 42% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Lake Hamilton’s grade.
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Lake Hamilton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lake Hamilton could be anywhere from D to B+.
The places Lake Hamilton commutes to
Where Lake Hamilton clocks in
41% of workers
14% 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.
The kinds of work in Lake Hamilton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake Hamilton, 2013 → 2023: 573 → 484. 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 Lake Hamilton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Lake Hamilton for work, and who comes in
On a workday 699 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 459 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Lake Hamilton on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.67 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.
About 22 minutes each way for Lake Hamilton’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake Hamilton workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 691 commuters (the 15% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Lake Hamilton
About 23% 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.
Driving is how Lake Hamilton gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake Hamilton is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns. 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 811 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). 0.0% of Lake Hamilton households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake Hamilton’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lake Hamilton ranks: 2,763rd of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 221 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 339 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,761 | Poland NY | 2,176 | $70K | 9.7% | 4.4% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,762 | Colerain Township OH | 1,963 | $94K | 11.7% | 0.7% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,763 | Lake Hamilton AR | 2,127 | $74K | 12.5% | 1.1% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,764 | Hardwick MA | 2,736 | $75K | 11.0% | 4.7% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,765 | Washington Township MO | 1,798 | $77K | 9.7% | 4.6% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Lake Hamilton, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
Work next door: 41% of Lake Hamilton’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lake Hamilton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Hamilton | – | C+ | C | 22 min | $73,696 |
| Hot Springs | 41% | C− | A− | 17 min | $47,760 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hot Springs. Darker towns draw more of Lake Hamilton’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 Lake Hamilton: questions
What is the median household income in Lake Hamilton?
$73,696 (±$27,486) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake Hamilton?
12.5%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake Hamilton?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake Hamilton work?
3% work in town.
Is Lake Hamilton walkable?
Lake Hamilton is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake Hamilton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake Hamilton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake Hamilton
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.