Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Lakin top those of 67% of U.S. towns
About one in four stay in Lakin for work; outside it, Garden City is the main destination (10%, 22 miles). 2.4% of residents live below the poverty line, against 11.3% across Kansas. The two grades for Lakin are B for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lakin, in a few figures
Why Lakin gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Lakin is better than 64% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Lakin’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Lakin’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, Lakin could be anywhere from B− to B+.
The commute from Lakin, by distance
About 19% 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.
Who leaves Lakin for work, and who comes in
On a workday 532 residents head out to work, 192 work right here, and 523 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 people from Lakin work
Where Lakin clocks in
10% 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 Lakin
715 jobs are based in Lakin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lakin, 2013 → 2023: 731 → 715. 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 Lakin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way, longer than most of Kansas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lakin workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 814 commuters (the 12% 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.
Most trips from Lakin start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lakin is more walkable than 33% 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 925 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). 2.8% of Lakin households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lakin’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Lakin is 1,472nd of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,470 | Wilson-Conococheague MD | 1,663 | $64K | 18.0% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,471 | Southport IN | 2,094 | $71K | 11.0% | 3.0% | 1% | B |
| 1,472 | Lakin KS | 2,154 | $90K | 2.4% | 4.1% | 27% | B |
| 1,473 | Morton PA | 2,768 | $62K | 6.4% | 4.7% | 4% | B |
| 1,474 | Matamoras PA | 2,448 | $77K | 4.8% | 3.2% | 7% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Lakin, 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 Lakin: questions
What is the median household income in Lakin?
$89,514 (±$23,363) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lakin?
2.4%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lakin?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lakin work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Garden City (10%, 22 mi), Sherlock Township (6%, 12 mi), Deerfield Township (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lakin walkable?
Lakin is more walkable than 33% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lakin without a car?
0% 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 Lakin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lakin
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.