Greenwood Hotel · Photo: Spacefem · CC0Household incomes in Eureka trail those of 89% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, where Kansas as a whole has 12%. Poverty touches 22.4% of residents, next to 11.3% for Kansas as a whole. Jobs and income earn Eureka D−; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Eureka at work: what stands out
Eureka’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Eureka is Wichita, 59 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (99) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
38% 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 ↓
Fewer than half of Eureka workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Eureka’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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 976 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Eureka’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Eureka is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Eureka’s grade.
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Eureka’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, Eureka could be anywhere from D− to D.
Short hops and long hauls from Eureka
About 38% 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.
What work there is in Eureka: 850 jobs
850 jobs are based in Eureka.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eureka, 2013 → 2023: 863 → 850. 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 Eureka’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Eureka
On a workday 625 residents head out to work, 351 work right here, and 499 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 2023, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in Wichita
Where Eureka clocks in
10% of workers
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.
About 22 minutes each way for Eureka’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eureka workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 889 commuters (the 4% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Eureka
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Eureka is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Eureka 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 929 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). 6.1% of Eureka households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Eureka’s commuters take a bus or train.
Eureka and other U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Ohio Township KS | 2,219 | $158K | 0.6% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,905 | Crownpoint NM | 2,882 | $51K | 31.5% | 6.9% | 24% | D− |
| 4,906 | Twin City GA | 1,702 | $40K | 32.9% | 4.1% | 9% | D− |
| 4,907 | Eureka KS | 2,239 | $49K | 22.4% | 3.8% | 36% | D− |
| 4,908 | Burnsville NC | 1,655 | $51K | 26.1% | 10.9% | 11% | D− |
| 4,909 | Jay OK | 2,507 | $38K | 23.5% | 13.6% | 19% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Eureka, 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 Eureka: questions
What is the median household income in Eureka?
$48,828 (±$11,178) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eureka?
22.4%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eureka?
22 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eureka work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wichita (10%, 59 mi), El Dorado (7%, 31 mi), Topeka (4%, 90 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eureka walkable?
Eureka is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eureka without a car?
0% 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 Eureka, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eureka
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.