Photo: Lauren Shufelberger · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Mena trail those of 91% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 13.9%, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%. For jobs and income Mena is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−). About half stay in Mena for work; outside it, Fort Smith is the main destination (4%, 54 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Mena, in a few figures
Mena is where the jobs are
Mena has 3,760 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Mena are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Mena workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Mena’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 16% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% 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.
What’s behind Mena’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Mena’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down (9.4%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mena could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How many people are in Mena by day
On a workday 1,044 residents head out to work, 896 work right here, and 2,864 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,400 people are in Mena on a workday afternoon, 32% more than live here.
1.9 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.
The trip to work from Mena: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mena workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,152 commuters (the 2% 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.
What work there is in Mena: 3,760 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mena, 2013 → 2023: 3,940 → 3,760. 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 Mena’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Mena
About 33% 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.
Where Mena’s workforce comes from
Where Mena clocks in
4% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Mena
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 7.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,206 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). 10.8% of Mena households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mena’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mena and other U.S. towns of 3,900 to 7,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 223 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 459 | Cave Springs AR | 6,701 | $146K | 1.8% | 4.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 743 | Haskell AR | 4,362 | $86K | 7.6% | 0.8% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,414 | Champion NY | 4,436 | $57K | 19.0% | 12.3% | 12% | D |
| 3,415 | Harrison Township OH | 5,147 | $49K | 21.3% | 9.6% | 11% | D |
| 3,416 | Mena AR | 5,607 | $47K | 13.9% | 9.4% | 46% | D |
| 3,417 | Hazlehurst GA | 4,172 | $39K | 28.2% | 6.3% | 21% | D |
| 3,418 | Du Quoin IL | 5,569 | $54K | 29.6% | 11.1% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,561 | 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 Mena, 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 Mena: questions
What is the median household income in Mena?
$47,428 (±$8,479) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mena?
13.9%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mena?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mena work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Smith (4%, 54 mi), Bentonville (2%, 122 mi), Little Rock (2%, 107 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mena walkable?
Mena is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mena without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mena, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mena
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.