Bryant-Lasater House · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Mulberry earn less than those in 87% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Mulberry are D for jobs and income and D for walkability. Below the poverty line: 16.4% of residents, against 16.0% across Arkansas. Only 5% work in Mulberry itself; outside it, Fort Smith draws the most (32%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Mulberry: the gist
Mulberry and Fort Smith trade workers both ways
Fort Smith is the top workplace for Mulberry residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Mulberry come from (10% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
50% of the jobs in Mulberry are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Mulberry has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Mulberry went from 342 in 2013 to 486 in 2023, +42%. 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 507 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Mulberry’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mulberry is better than 15% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mulberry’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($50,428, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Mulberry’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, Mulberry could be anywhere from D to C−.
Where the trip to work from Mulberry ends
Where Mulberry clocks in
32% of workers
11% 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 Mulberry
486 jobs are based in Mulberry.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mulberry, 2013 → 2023: 342 → 486. 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 Mulberry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Mulberry by day and by night
On a workday 480 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 459 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 (0.96 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 26 minutes each way for Mulberry’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mulberry workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 589 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.
How far it is to work from Mulberry
About 16% 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.
Most of Mulberry commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mulberry is more walkable than 13% 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 603 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). 9.5% of Mulberry households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mulberry’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mulberry next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200: 4,716th of 6,161 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 123 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 634 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,714 | Darien GA | 1,807 | $57K | 14.4% | 3.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,715 | Jackson Township IL | 1,221 | $73K | 27.9% | 0.0% | <1% | D |
| 4,716 | Mulberry AR | 1,635 | $50K | 16.4% | 0.0% | 5% | D |
| 4,717 | Holstein IA | 1,470 | $64K | 16.8% | 0.7% | 29% | D |
| 4,718 | Byhalia MS | 1,412 | $39K | 34.9% | 6.9% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Mulberry, 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 Mulberry: questions
What is the median household income in Mulberry?
$50,428 (±$6,113) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mulberry?
16.4%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mulberry?
26 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mulberry work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Smith (32%, 20 mi), Van Buren (11%, 16 mi), Alma (10%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mulberry walkable?
Mulberry is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mulberry without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mulberry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mulberry
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.