Caldwell Carnegie Library · Photo: Lefibreguy · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Caldwell trail those of 93% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Caldwell for work; outside it, Wichita is the main destination (19%, 47 miles). The poverty rate is 12.8%, next to 11.3% for Kansas as a whole. For jobs and income Caldwell is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Caldwell, in a few figures
The four measures behind Caldwell’s grade
The poverty rate holds Caldwell’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.8%) is left out: Caldwell’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Caldwell could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Short hops and long hauls from Caldwell
About 29% 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.
Caldwell by day and by night
On a workday 328 residents head out to work, 60 work right here, and 226 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Caldwell on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.74 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.
Where the trip to work from Caldwell ends
Where Caldwell clocks in
19% 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.
What work there is in Caldwell: 286 jobs
286 jobs are based in Caldwell.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Caldwell, 2013 → 2023: 292 → 286. 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 Caldwell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Caldwell takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Caldwell workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 356 commuters (the 12% 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.
In Caldwell, the car does most of the work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 405 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). 6.7% of Caldwell households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Caldwell’s commuters take a bus or train.
Caldwell is 2,731st of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Payne Township KS | 1,375 | $104K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,729 | Yellville AR | 1,095 | $38K | 15.8% | 6.2% | 15% | D |
| 2,730 | Central City IL | 1,067 | $45K | 29.1% | 7.2% | 2% | D |
| 2,731 | Caldwell KS | 1,000 | $44K | 12.8% | 8.8% | 15% | D |
| 2,732 | Carson City MI | 1,137 | $44K | 15.7% | 5.0% | 5% | D |
| 2,733 | Belle MO | 1,379 | $55K | 21.8% | 4.4% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Caldwell, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
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 Caldwell: questions
What is the median household income in Caldwell?
$44,286 (±$16,199) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Caldwell?
12.8%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Caldwell?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Caldwell work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wichita (19%, 47 mi), Wellington (16%, 20 mi), South Haven (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Caldwell walkable?
Caldwell is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Caldwell without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Caldwell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Caldwell
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.