Photo: Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0Work means Great Bend for about two in five of Great Bend Township’s working residents
Measured by household income, Great Bend Township is ahead of 79% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Great Bend Township are B for jobs and income and D for walkability. Only 6% work in Great Bend Township itself; outside it, Great Bend draws the most (42%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Great Bend Township in brief
Great Bend Township is where the jobs are
Great Bend Township has 1,056 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Most Great Bend Township residents work close to home
60% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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; with 617 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Great Bend Township’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Great Bend Township is better than 61% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Great Bend Township’s grade up ($102,560, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Great Bend Township’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Great Bend Township could be anywhere from C− to A−.
In and out of Great Bend Township on a workday
On a workday 583 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 1,022 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Great Bend Township on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The distance from Great Bend Township to work
About 26% 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 daily trip into Great Bend Township
Where Great Bend Township clocks in
42% of workers
6% 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.
In Great Bend Township, 45% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
1,056 jobs are based in Great Bend Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Great Bend Township, 2014 → 2024: 1,306 → 1,056. 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 Great Bend Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 12 minutes to work from Great Bend Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Great Bend Township workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 779 commuters (the 17% 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.
For most of Great Bend Township, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Great Bend Township is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 939 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). 0.0% of Great Bend Township households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Great Bend Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Great Bend Township ranks: 1,435th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,433 | Dickeyville WI | 1,085 | $71K | 5.3% | 0.2% | 3% | B |
| 1,434 | Ashkum Township IL | 1,381 | $90K | 4.0% | 1.5% | 5% | B |
| 1,435 | Great Bend Township KS | 1,397 | $103K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 6% | B |
| 1,436 | Richmond MA | 1,400 | $106K | 7.3% | 2.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,437 | Genola UT | 1,660 | $127K | 10.3% | 0.2% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Great Bend Township, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Work next door: 47% of Great Bend Township’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Great Bend Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bend Township | – | B | D | 12 min | $102,560 |
| Great Bend | 42% | C− | A− | 14 min | $54,139 |
| South Bend Township | 4% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Comanche Township | under 2% | — | — | 10 min | — |
| Cheyenne Township | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Lakin Township | under 2% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Buffalo Township | 1% | — | — | — | — |
| Liberty Township | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. South Bend Township, Comanche Township, Cheyenne Township, Lakin Township, Buffalo Township and Liberty Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Great Bend. Darker towns draw more of Great Bend Township’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 Great Bend Township: questions
What is the median household income in Great Bend Township?
$102,560 (±$31,215) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Great Bend Township?
6.2%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Great Bend Township?
12 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Great Bend Township work?
6% work in town.
Is Great Bend Township walkable?
Great Bend Township is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Great Bend Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Great Bend Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Great Bend Township
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.