Smackover Historic Commercial District · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 4.0More people are out of work in Smackover (7.4%) than in 85% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Smackover itself; outside it, El Dorado draws the most (28%, 11 miles). Smackover grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Smackover is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Smackover: the gist
Smackover and El Dorado trade workers both ways
El Dorado is the top workplace for Smackover residents (28%) and also where the most people who work in Smackover come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Smackover makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Smackover are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Smackover residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. 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 678 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Smackover earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Smackover is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Smackover’s grade up (ahead of 26% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (26.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Smackover could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Where people from Smackover work
Where Smackover clocks in
28% 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.
Goods jobs make up 46% of work in Smackover
569 jobs are based in Smackover.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Smackover, 2013 → 2023: 562 → 569. 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 Smackover’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Smackover: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 554 residents head out to work, 124 work right here, and 445 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 (0.84 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.
Getting to work from Smackover takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Smackover workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 952 commuters (the 7% 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 Smackover goes to work
About 18% 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.
Getting around Smackover: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Smackover is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,021 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). 1.5% of Smackover households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Smackover’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Smackover is 5,017th among 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 128 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 584 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,015 | Sanborn WI | 1,402 | $53K | 15.2% | 4.8% | 5% | D |
| 5,016 | West Crossett AR | 1,413 | $55K | 18.3% | 5.7% | 2% | D |
| 5,017 | Smackover AR | 1,584 | $56K | 26.6% | 7.4% | 18% | D |
| 5,018 | Bull Shoals AR | 1,888 | $42K | 14.6% | 12.9% | 9% | D |
| 5,019 | Lake Park GA | 1,559 | $52K | 31.1% | 0.0% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Smackover, 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 Smackover: questions
What is the median household income in Smackover?
$55,995 (±$9,350) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Smackover?
26.6%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Smackover?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Smackover work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are El Dorado (28%, 11 mi), Camden (4%, 16 mi), Little Rock (2%, 96 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Smackover walkable?
Smackover is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Smackover without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Smackover, from the people who make the trip.
More of Smackover
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.