Photo: Paltron · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Fort Scott trail those of 85% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Fort Scott are D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 13.5% of residents are in poverty; Kansas has 11.3%. About two in five work in Fort Scott; the top destination outside it is Scott Township (4%, 1 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Fort Scott
Fort Scott’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fort Scott is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #143 of 151 in Kansas. The poverty rate holds Fort Scott’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($52,159, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fort Scott could be anywhere from D to C+.
How far Fort Scott goes to work
About 34% 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.
Who works in Fort Scott, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 1,923 residents head out to work, 1,496 work right here, and 2,956 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,500 people are in Fort Scott on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
Where Fort Scott goes to work
Where Fort Scott clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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 kinds of work in Fort Scott
4,452 jobs are based in Fort Scott.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fort Scott, 2014 → 2024: 4,768 → 4,452. 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 Fort Scott’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Fort Scott: about 17 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fort Scott workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,997 commuters (the 11% 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 Fort Scott, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fort Scott is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #12 of 151 in Kansas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 8.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,374 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). 2.9% of Fort Scott households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Fort Scott’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fort Scott next to U.S. towns of 5,300 to 10,100: 2,718th of 3,027 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 126 | Pleasant Township KS | 5,459 | $113K | 0.8% | 1.2% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 198 | Tecumseh Township KS | 7,829 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.2% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 250 | Eudora Township KS | 7,870 | $119K | 4.6% | 2.3% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,716 | Jackson GA | 5,884 | $46K | 19.4% | 5.7% | 13% | D |
| 2,717 | Rochester Township IN | 10,001 | $60K | 15.4% | 7.3% | 31% | D |
| 2,718 | Fort Scott KS | 7,500 | $52K | 13.5% | 6.3% | 44% | D |
| 2,719 | Plymouth PA | 5,801 | $39K | 24.1% | 6.8% | 5% | D |
| 2,720 | Pulaski VA | 8,807 | $49K | 21.2% | 5.2% | 18% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,027 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Fort Scott, 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 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 Fort Scott: questions
What is the median household income in Fort Scott?
$52,159 (±$11,823) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fort Scott?
13.5%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fort Scott?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fort Scott work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Scott Township (4%, 1 mi), Pittsburg (4%, 29 mi), Arkansas City (3%, 138 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Fort Scott walkable?
Fort Scott is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fort Scott without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fort Scott, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fort Scott
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.