Photo: Richard Bauer · CC BY 2.0About two in five of Ellis’ working residents commute to Hays
Jobs & income C: better than 33% of U.S. towns on income, poverty, unemployment and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 53% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 20 minutes each way (Kansas 20, U.S. 26). About one in seven work in Ellis; the top destination outside it is Hays (41%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ellis
What’s behind Ellis’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ellis is better than 33% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Ellis’ grade up (2.5%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.2%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ellis could be anywhere from D to B.
41% of working residents work in Hays
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Ellis clocks in
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Ellis quiets down on a workday
On a workday 777 residents head out to work, 138 work right here, and 393 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Ellis on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
0.58 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.
What the 531 jobs in Ellis are
531 jobs are based in Ellis. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ellis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ellis, 2013 → 2023: 619 → 531. 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.
About 20 minutes each way, about the KS average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ellis workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 948 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.
Half of Ellis commutes less than 14 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 27% 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.
Most trips from Ellis start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ellis is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% 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 982 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). 8.4% of Ellis households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ellis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ellis is 3,364th of 5,921 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Ellis, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,362 | Franklin VT | 1,425 | $80K | 8.6% | 3.2% | 2% | C |
| 3,363 | Warren Park IN | 1,509 | $43K | 19.2% | 9.9% | <1% | C |
| 3,364 | Ellis KS | 1,917 | $73K | 21.2% | 2.5% | 15% | C |
| 3,365 | Lakefield MN | 1,697 | $72K | 10.5% | 0.5% | 21% | C |
| 3,366 | Ash Grove MO | 1,532 | $58K | 11.0% | 4.0% | 8% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | 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.
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 Ellis: questions
What is the median household income in Ellis?
$73,000 (±$16,895) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ellis?
21.2%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ellis?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ellis work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hays (41%, 13 mi), Big Creek Township (7%, 12 mi), Wichita (2%, 147 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ellis walkable?
Ellis is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ellis without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ellis, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ellis
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.