Photo: Art davis · CC BY-SA 4.0Harper has lower household incomes than 82% of U.S. towns
2% of workers have no commute at all, against 12% across Kansas. Below the poverty line: 19.1% of residents, where Kansas as a whole has 11.3%. Jobs and income earn Harper 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
The commute and the jobs: Harper in brief
Harper and Anthony trade workers both ways
Anthony is the top workplace for Harper residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Harper come from (14% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Harper makes and builds things
56% of the jobs based in Harper are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Harper residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 33%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Harper are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 20 across Kansas. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kansas worker. Time on the road ↓
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 526 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Harper’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Harper is better than 5% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Harper’s grade.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Harper’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, Harper could be anywhere from D− to C−.
17% of working residents work in Anthony
Where Harper clocks in
17% of workers
14% 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.
Harper makes things: 56% of its jobs are in goods
421 jobs are based in Harper.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harper, 2013 → 2023: 559 → 421. 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 Harper’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 14 minutes from Harper
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harper workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 493 commuters (the 2% 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 Harper for work, and who comes in
On a workday 433 residents head out to work, 93 work right here, and 328 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 (0.80 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.
Harper’s commute, mile by mile
About 24% 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.
Harper is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Harper is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 8.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 505 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). 14.0% of Harper households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Harper’s commuters take a bus or train.
Harper and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,379 | Arrowhead Beach NC | 1,242 | $67K | 39.9% | 6.6% | <1% | D |
| 4,380 | Blue Ridge GA | 1,297 | $45K | 20.5% | 0.0% | 23% | D |
| 4,381 | Harper KS | 1,287 | $54K | 19.1% | 0.8% | 18% | D |
| 4,382 | Brodhead KY | 1,116 | $35K | 29.1% | 4.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,383 | Bagley MN | 1,310 | $45K | 17.7% | 6.6% | 33% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Harper, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Harper and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Township 5 (9%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Harper workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harper | – | D | A | 14 min | $54,250 |
| Township 5 | 9% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Township 5: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Harper’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 Harper: questions
What is the median household income in Harper?
$54,250 (±$14,468) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Harper?
19.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Harper?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Harper work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Anthony (17%, 9 mi), Wichita (14%, 47 mi), Township 5 (9%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Harper walkable?
Harper is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Harper without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harper, from the people who make the trip.
More of Harper
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.