Photo: Sgerbic · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Melbourne are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
30.8% of residents are in poverty, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%. Jobs and income earn Melbourne D−; getting around on foot earns it C. About one in four work in Melbourne itself; outside it, Batesville draws the most (13%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Melbourne: the gist
Melbourne is where the jobs are
Melbourne has 1,117 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Melbourne’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Melbourne is Batesville, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (69) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Melbourne workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Melbourne’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 546 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Melbourne’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Melbourne is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Melbourne’s grade.
Unemployment (5.6%) is left out: Melbourne’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, Melbourne stays D−.
Melbourne by day and by night
On a workday 412 residents head out to work, 134 work right here, and 983 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Melbourne on a workday afternoon, 30% more than live here.
2.0 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.
Miles to work from Melbourne
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Inside Melbourne’s 1,117 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Melbourne, 2013 → 2023: 1,480 → 1,117. 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 Melbourne’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Melbourne’s workforce comes from
Where Melbourne clocks in
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.
Time on the road from Melbourne: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Melbourne workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 769 commuters (the 6% 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.
Most trips from Melbourne start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Melbourne is more walkable than 28% 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 822 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). 11.5% of Melbourne households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Melbourne’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Melbourne sits among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 145 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 232 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,062 | West Fork AR | 2,373 | $78K | 3.1% | 3.5% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Ragland AL | 1,710 | $38K | 40.5% | 12.3% | 3% | D− |
| 5,795 | Clarendon AR | 1,394 | $34K | 23.9% | 7.2% | 22% | D− |
| 5,796 | Melbourne AR | 1,892 | $39K | 30.8% | 5.6% | 25% | D− |
| 5,797 | Newberry MI | 1,397 | $46K | 29.7% | 10.8% | 25% | D− |
| 5,798 | Appleton MN | 1,361 | $44K | 28.3% | 6.3% | 30% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Melbourne, 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 Melbourne: questions
What is the median household income in Melbourne?
$39,469 (±$8,978) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Melbourne?
30.8%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Melbourne?
25 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Melbourne work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Batesville (13%, 25 mi), Little Rock (5%, 96 mi), Oxford (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Melbourne walkable?
Melbourne is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Melbourne without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Melbourne, from the people who make the trip.
More of Melbourne
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.