Photo: Jma661 · CC BY-SA 3.0Newport has lower household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
1% of workers have no commute at all; Arkansas has 9%. 30.4% of residents live below the poverty line, against 16.0% across Arkansas. For jobs and income Newport is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Newport: the gist
Commutes from Newport are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Newport workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Newport’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 ↓
Few Newport workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 9% across Arkansas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Newport
Job access by car holds Newport’s grade up (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($34,764, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Newport could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Getting to work from Newport takes about 14 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Newport workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,996 commuters (the 1% 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 Newport’s employers do
2,841 jobs are based in Newport.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Newport, 2013 → 2023: 3,239 → 2,841. 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 Newport’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Newport, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,559 residents head out to work, 769 work right here, and 2,072 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 (1.22 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.
7% of working residents work in Jonesboro
Where Newport clocks in
7% 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.
Half of Newport commutes less than 24 miles
About 28% 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.
Newport is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,012 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). 15.3% of Newport households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Newport’s commuters take a bus or train.
Newport next to U.S. towns of 5,700 to 11,100
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 452 | Farmington AR | 10,658 | $90K | 3.8% | 0.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 479 | Cave Springs AR | 6,701 | $146K | 1.8% | 4.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,303 | Tontitown AR | 8,046 | $86K | 4.7% | 6.0% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,011 | Union SC | 8,077 | $32K | 28.9% | 11.4% | 16% | D− |
| 3,012 | Middlesborough KY | 8,776 | $31K | 31.0% | 8.5% | 36% | D− |
| 3,013 | Newport AR | 8,193 | $35K | 30.4% | 8.7% | 33% | D− |
| 3,014 | Gouverneur NY | 6,414 | $44K | 21.4% | 7.9% | 32% | D− |
| 3,015 | Swainsboro GA | 7,436 | $50K | 29.0% | 13.8% | 28% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,034 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Newport, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
Next door to Newport
The biggest share goes to Diaz (7%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Newport’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 Newport: questions
What is the median household income in Newport?
$34,764 (±$7,315) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Newport?
30.4%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Newport?
14 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Newport work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jonesboro (7%, 34 mi), Diaz (7%, 2 mi), Batesville (5%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Newport walkable?
Newport is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Newport without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Newport, from the people who make the trip.
More of Newport
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.