Osage County Courthouse · Photo: Ichabod · CC BY-SA 3.0Lyndon has lower household incomes than 62% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 8.8% of residents, next to 11.3% across Kansas. For jobs and income Lyndon is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (C+). About one in ten stay in Lyndon for work; outside it, Topeka is the main destination (22%, 29 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Lyndon
Lyndon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Lyndon is Topeka, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (104) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Lyndon workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 26 minutes each way, against 20 across Kansas. Over a year that’s about 199 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical 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 473 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Lyndon earns its Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Lyndon’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Lyndon’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, Lyndon could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Lyndon’s commute, mile by mile
About 29% 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.
The trip to work from Lyndon: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lyndon workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 459 commuters (the 5% 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 Lyndon for work, and who comes in
On a workday 422 residents head out to work, 51 work right here, and 553 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Lyndon on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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 Lyndon goes to work
Where Lyndon clocks in
22% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Lyndon
604 jobs are based in Lyndon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lyndon, 2013 → 2023: 643 → 604. 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 Lyndon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Lyndon, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% of 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 483 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). 1.6% of Lyndon households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lyndon’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lyndon ranks: 1,384th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Payne Township KS | 1,375 | $104K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,382 | Schuylkill Township PA | 1,079 | $72K | 9.9% | 4.4% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,383 | Jones Valley CA | 1,122 | $82K | 7.8% | 9.9% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,384 | Lyndon KS | 1,032 | $67K | 8.8% | 0.0% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,385 | Sand Prairie Township IL | 1,248 | $68K | 11.2% | 0.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,386 | Big Island Township OH | 1,179 | $44K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Lyndon, 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 Lyndon: questions
What is the median household income in Lyndon?
$67,227 (±$12,697) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lyndon?
8.8%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lyndon?
26 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lyndon work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Topeka (22%, 29 mi), Ottawa (6%, 23 mi), Lawrence (5%, 33 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lyndon walkable?
Lyndon is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lyndon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lyndon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lyndon
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.