Rillito Race Track Historic District (Boundary Increase) · Photo: Eric McCarthy from Tucson, AZ · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Kearny are lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers, where Arizona as a whole has 18%. Poverty touches 11.5% of residents, next to 12.5% for Arizona as a whole. Kearny grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Kearny
Kearny’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Kearny is Phoenix, 77 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (115) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
58% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Kearny is a place people come home to
There are 160 jobs based in Kearny, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Kearny has about 1,400 people in it, 26% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 635 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Kearny’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Kearny’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.4%) is left out: Kearny’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Kearny could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Kearny
About 58% 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.
Kearny quiets down on a workday
On a workday 592 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 117 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Kearny on a workday afternoon, 26% fewer than live here.
0.25 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Out of Kearny to work: where people go
Where Kearny clocks in
18% of workers
8% of workers
5% 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.
Jobs in Kearny: what the 160 are
160 jobs are based in Kearny.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kearny, 2013 → 2023: 157 → 160. 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 Kearny’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way, about the AZ average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kearny workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 711 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Arizona: 82% 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.
The commute in Kearny is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kearny is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Kearny near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 777 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). 8.7% of Kearny households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kearny’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Kearny is 4,929th of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 939 | Fort Valley AZ | 1,761 | $126K | 5.2% | 0.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,168 | Centennial Park AZ | 1,839 | $168K | 3.5% | 2.5% | 31% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,190 | Bellemont AZ | 1,701 | $120K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,927 | Sheffield Township PA | 1,755 | $58K | 15.8% | 0.0% | 14% | D |
| 4,928 | Cohoe AK | 1,598 | $64K | 17.7% | 11.2% | — | D |
| 4,929 | Kearny AZ | 1,849 | $47K | 11.5% | 4.4% | 7% | D |
| 4,930 | Lepanto AR | 1,643 | $44K | 17.0% | 8.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,931 | Decatur MS | 1,878 | $50K | 20.7% | 6.6% | 9% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Kearny, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
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 Kearny: questions
What is the median household income in Kearny?
$47,031 (±$32,766) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kearny?
11.5%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kearny?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kearny work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phoenix (18%, 77 mi), Mesa (8%, 52 mi), Tempe (5%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kearny walkable?
Kearny is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kearny without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kearny, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kearny
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.