Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 4.0Waldron’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
0% of workers work from home (Arkansas 9%). 19.4% of residents live below the poverty line, against 16.0% across Arkansas. For jobs and income Waldron is better than 2% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Waldron in brief
Waldron is where the jobs are
Waldron has 2,454 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Waldron workers earn over $40,000 a year
36% of Waldron’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 15% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Waldron’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Waldron is Fort Smith, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (135) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Waldron makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Waldron are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Waldron residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 39%. The jobs ↓
The biggest group of Waldron’s workers comes from Fort Smith
145 of the people who work in Waldron live in Fort Smith, 35 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
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 Waldron earns its Jobs & income grade
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Waldron’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Waldron could be anywhere from D− to D.
The workday shuffle in and out of Waldron
On a workday 726 residents head out to work, 473 work right here, and 1,981 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,600 people are in Waldron on a workday afternoon, 37% more than live here.
2.0 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.
Goods jobs make up 46% of work in Waldron
2,454 jobs are based in Waldron.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Waldron, 2013 → 2023: 2,124 → 2,454. 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 Waldron’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Waldron
About 31% 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.
Commuting in to Waldron: where workers come from
Where Waldron clocks in
11% 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.
Commuting from Waldron: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Waldron workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,297 commuters (the 0% 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.
In Waldron, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,297 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). 10.5% of Waldron households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Waldron’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,600, and where Waldron sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 177 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Austin AR | 4,017 | $114K | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 269 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,329 | Myrtle Point OR | 2,462 | $48K | 20.2% | 11.8% | 16% | D− |
| 4,330 | Lineville AL | 2,473 | $38K | 32.4% | 4.7% | 11% | D− |
| 4,331 | Waldron AR | 3,387 | $34K | 19.4% | 13.8% | 39% | D− |
| 4,332 | Yuma CO | 3,424 | $48K | 31.5% | 8.9% | 36% | D− |
| 4,333 | Eufaula OK | 2,882 | $37K | 29.3% | 2.8% | 23% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,402 | 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 Waldron, 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 Waldron: questions
What is the median household income in Waldron?
$33,839 (±$17,633) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Waldron?
19.4%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Waldron?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Waldron work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Smith (11%, 34 mi), Russellville (2%, 60 mi), Clarksville (2%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Waldron walkable?
Waldron is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Waldron 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 Waldron, from the people who make the trip.
More of Waldron
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.