Photo: Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0Households in Great Bend earn less than those in 83% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Great Bend itself; outside it, Great Bend Township draws the most (8%, 4 miles). Below the poverty line: 16.9% of residents, next to 11.3% across Kansas. The two grades for Great Bend are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Great Bend: the figures worth knowing
What’s behind Great Bend’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Great Bend is better than 19% of U.S. towns, #135 of 151 in Kansas. Unemployment holds Great Bend’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($54,139, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Great Bend could be anywhere from D to C+.
About 14 minutes to work from Great Bend
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Great Bend workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,250 commuters (the 6% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 3,687 residents head out to work, 2,647 work right here, and 3,639 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 (0.99 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.
Where the trip to work from Great Bend ends
Where Great Bend clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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 Great Bend: 6,286 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Great Bend, 2013 → 2023: 8,283 → 6,286. 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 Great Bend’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Great Bend
About 28% 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.
In Great Bend, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Great Bend is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #26 of 151 in Kansas. Both inputs place Great Bend 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 6,644 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). 5.9% of Great Bend households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Great Bend’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000, Great Bend ranks 1,966th of 2,227 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 360 | Andover KS | 17,370 | $105K | 4.6% | 2.7% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 407 | Spring Hill KS | 10,777 | $112K | 7.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 481 | Mission Township KS | 10,195 | $122K | 4.5% | 3.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,964 | Danville KY | 17,736 | $53K | 17.4% | 6.6% | 35% | C− |
| 1,965 | Jacksonville AL | 14,400 | $52K | 23.1% | 7.5% | 19% | C− |
| 1,966 | Great Bend KS | 14,266 | $54K | 16.9% | 4.7% | 42% | C− |
| 1,967 | Winton CA | 11,797 | $57K | 14.0% | 12.1% | 4% | C− |
| 1,968 | Mount Vernon IL | 14,187 | $55K | 17.3% | 6.3% | 47% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
12% of Great Bend works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Great Bend workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bend | – | C− | A− | 14 min | $54,139 |
| Great Bend Township | 8% | B | D | 12 min | $102,560 |
| South Bend Township | 4% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Liberty Township | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Buffalo Township | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Comanche Township | under 2% | — | — | 10 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. South Bend Township, Liberty Township, Buffalo Township and Comanche Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Great Bend Township. Darker towns draw more of Great Bend’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 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 Great Bend: questions
What is the median household income in Great Bend?
$54,139 (±$7,438) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Great Bend?
16.9%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Great Bend?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Great Bend work?
42% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Great Bend Township (8%, 4 mi), Wichita (7%, 92 mi), South Bend Township (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Great Bend walkable?
Great Bend is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Great Bend without a car?
<1% 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 Great Bend, from the people who make the trip.
More of Great Bend
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.