Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station · Photo: Vanessa Ezekowitz · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Baxter Springs are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns
For 3% of workers, the job is at home (Kansas 12%). Poverty touches 24.3% of residents, where Kansas as a whole has 11.3%. Jobs and income earn Baxter Springs D; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Baxter Springs apart on work
Baxter Springs trades workers with the towns around it
Baxter Springs has about as many jobs (1,397) as working residents (1,611), but they are mostly different people: 1,295 residents leave for work each day while 1,081 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Baxter Springs are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Many of the people who work in Baxter Springs live in another state
Miami, OK (7%), Joplin, MO (7%) and Carl Junction, MO (2%) are among the top places Baxter Springs’ workers come from. Counting only the top ten home towns, 18% of the jobs here are held by people from out of state. The commute map ↓
Baxter Springs makes and builds things
49% of the jobs based in Baxter Springs are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Baxter Springs residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Few Baxter Springs workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 12% across Kansas. 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Baxter Springs earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Baxter Springs is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #144 of 151 in Kansas. Job access by car holds Baxter Springs’ grade up (ahead of 43% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Baxter Springs could be anywhere from D to C+.
Who leaves Baxter Springs for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,295 residents head out to work, 316 work right here, and 1,081 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 (0.87 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
17% of working residents work in Joplin
Where Baxter Springs clocks in
17% of workers
7% 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.
Baxter Springs makes things: 49% of its jobs are in goods
1,397 jobs are based in Baxter Springs.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Baxter Springs, 2014 → 2024: 1,479 → 1,397. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Baxter Springs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Baxter Springs spends getting to work: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Baxter Springs workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,792 commuters (the 3% 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.
Baxter Springs’ commute, mile by mile
About 23% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The commute in Baxter Springs is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Baxter Springs is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #87 of 151 in Kansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across Kansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,855 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). 10.0% of Baxter Springs households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Baxter Springs’ commuters take a bus or train.
Baxter Springs next to U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200: 3,712th of 4,264 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Fairway KS | 4,181 | $153K | 3.1% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Aubry Township KS | 4,719 | $134K | 0.7% | 1.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,710 | Sparta TN | 5,038 | $50K | 14.3% | 7.8% | 27% | D |
| 3,711 | Parker AZ | 3,394 | $66K | 12.7% | 7.4% | 26% | D |
| 3,712 | Baxter Springs KS | 3,823 | $51K | 24.3% | 5.6% | 20% | D |
| 3,713 | Eveleth MN | 3,381 | $51K | 14.8% | 5.7% | 9% | D |
| 3,714 | North Wilkesboro NC | 4,369 | $38K | 23.8% | 4.8% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Baxter Springs, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Baxter Springs and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Baxter Springs workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter Springs | – | D | B− | 19 min | $51,404 |
| Spring Valley Township | under 2% | C+ | D− | 19 min | $86,429 |
| Garden Township | under 2% | A− | D | 19 min | $86,074 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Baxter Springs’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 2024, 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 Baxter Springs: questions
What is the median household income in Baxter Springs?
$51,404 (±$10,834) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Baxter Springs?
24.3%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Baxter Springs?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Baxter Springs work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Joplin (17%, 13 mi), Galena (7%, 7 mi), Pittsburg (5%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Baxter Springs walkable?
Baxter Springs is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Baxter Springs 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 Baxter Springs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Baxter Springs
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.