Photo: Ichabod · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Abilene trail those of 77% of U.S. towns
6.8% of residents are in poverty, next to 11.3% for Kansas as a whole. Jobs and income earn Abilene B−; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in three work in Abilene; the top destination outside it is Salina (14%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Abilene, in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Abilene
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Abilene is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #86 of 151 in Kansas. The poverty rate holds Abilene’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($57,924, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Abilene could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The commute from Abilene, by distance
About 19% 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.
Who commutes out of Abilene, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,779 residents head out to work, 1,059 work right here, and 1,615 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 (0.94 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.
The places Abilene commutes to
Where Abilene clocks in
4% 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 2,674 jobs based in Abilene
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Abilene, 2013 → 2023: 3,514 → 2,674. 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 Abilene’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 20 minutes from Abilene
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Abilene workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,102 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 85% 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.
Abilene is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Abilene is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #15 of 151 in Kansas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,285 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). 5.6% of Abilene households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Abilene’s commuters take a bus or train.
Abilene is 1,919th of 3,218 U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,800 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Aubry Township KS | 4,719 | $134K | 0.7% | 1.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 113 | Pleasant Township KS | 5,459 | $113K | 0.8% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 175 | Tecumseh Township KS | 7,829 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,917 | Wilmington IL | 5,614 | $66K | 11.5% | 4.7% | 10% | B− |
| 1,918 | Walker LA | 6,476 | $81K | 12.5% | 6.8% | 6% | B− |
| 1,919 | Abilene KS | 6,552 | $58K | 6.8% | 3.2% | 37% | B− |
| 1,920 | York NE | 8,284 | $63K | 11.5% | 1.7% | 47% | B− |
| 1,921 | Shillington PA | 5,542 | $80K | 16.7% | 6.1% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,218 | 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 Abilene, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Next door to Abilene
The biggest share goes to Lincoln Township (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Abilene workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abilene | – | B− | A− | 20 min | $57,924 |
| Grant Township | 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
| Lincoln Township | 5% | B− | C− | 19 min | $65,962 |
Same-state neighbors only. Grant Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Abilene’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 Abilene: questions
What is the median household income in Abilene?
$57,924 (±$8,811) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Abilene?
6.8%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Abilene?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Abilene work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salina (14%, 22 mi), Lincoln Township (5%, 5 mi), Manhattan (4%, 38 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Abilene walkable?
Abilene is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Abilene without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Abilene, from the people who make the trip.
More of Abilene
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.