Midway ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
Jobs and income earn Midway D−; getting around on foot earns it B. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Below the poverty line: 30.8% of residents, 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
Getting to work from Midway, in brief
42% of Midway works in Mountain Home
150 working residents, 42%, have their main job in Mountain Home, 6.4 miles away. That’s 21 times as many as work in Midway itself. The commute map ↓
Midway makes and builds things
57% of the jobs based in Midway are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Midway residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 22%. The jobs ↓
Most Midway residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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 361 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Midway
On income, poverty and job access, Midway is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Midway’s grade up (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($30,750, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Midway’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Midway could be anywhere from D− to D.
42% of working residents work in Mountain Home
Where Midway clocks in
4% 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.
Goods jobs make up 57% of work in Midway
408 jobs are based in Midway.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Midway, 2013 → 2023: 295 → 408. 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 Midway’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Midway’s workers travel
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.
Midway on a workday afternoon
On a workday 353 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 400 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.13 per resident).
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 15 minutes to work from Midway
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Midway workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 503 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.
Most trips from Midway start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Midway is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 4.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 518 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 Midway households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Midway’s commuters take a bus or train.
Midway and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 429 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,332 | Redfield AR | 1,492 | $72K | 8.3% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,667 | Benton Township OH | 1,576 | $33K | 19.1% | 0.0% | <1% | D− |
| 4,668 | Brighton VT | 1,251 | $47K | 22.0% | 3.9% | 24% | D− |
| 4,669 | Midway AR | 1,279 | $31K | 30.8% | 0.0% | 2% | D− |
| 4,670 | Cypress Quarters FL | 1,697 | $38K | 35.0% | 2.5% | 2% | D− |
| 4,671 | Nahunta GA | 1,059 | $46K | 29.3% | 4.2% | 16% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Midway, 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 Midway: questions
What is the median household income in Midway?
$30,750 (±$12,785) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Midway?
30.8%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Midway?
15 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Midway work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mountain Home (42%, 6 mi), Flippin (4%, 10 mi), Little Rock (3%, 115 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Midway walkable?
Midway is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Midway 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 Midway, from the people who make the trip.
More of Midway
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.