Rice County Courthouse · Photo: Chris Light · CC BY-SA 4.0Lyons has higher unemployment (8.0%) than 88% of U.S. towns
1% of workers have no commute at all (Kansas 12%). Jobs and income earn Lyons C−; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in three work in Lyons; the top destination outside it is Sterling (12%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Lyons in brief
Inside Lyons’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lyons is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #133 of 151 in Kansas. The poverty rate holds Lyons’ grade up (9.1%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lyons could be anywhere from D to B.
Commuting from Lyons: about 18 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lyons workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,696 commuters (the 1% 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 944 residents head out to work, 485 work right here, and 656 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.
Where the trip to work from Lyons ends
Where Lyons clocks in
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.
Lyons is a services town
1,141 jobs are based in Lyons.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lyons, 2013 → 2023: 1,275 → 1,141. 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 Lyons’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Lyons, by distance
About 18% 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.
Most of Lyons commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lyons is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #71 of 151 in Kansas. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,715 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). 4.8% of Lyons households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lyons’ commuters take a bus or train.
Lyons is 3,646th of 4,535 U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Fairway KS | 4,181 | $153K | 3.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Minneha Township KS | 3,472 | $143K | 2.1% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,644 | Trimble Township OH | 3,972 | $58K | 19.2% | 3.6% | 7% | C− |
| 3,645 | Bon Secour AL | 2,789 | $61K | 17.7% | 5.0% | 1% | C− |
| 3,646 | Lyons KS | 3,488 | $63K | 9.1% | 8.0% | 34% | C− |
| 3,647 | Unicoi TN | 3,861 | $42K | 21.3% | 4.8% | 5% | C− |
| 3,648 | Dexter ME | 3,874 | $52K | 23.1% | 2.1% | 17% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,535 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Lyons, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Around Lyons: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Atlanta Township (6%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lyons workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyons | – | C− | B | 18 min | $62,569 |
| Atlanta Township | 6% | — | — | — | — |
| Harrison Township | 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Atlanta Township and Harrison Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lyons’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 Lyons: questions
What is the median household income in Lyons?
$62,569 (±$10,736) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lyons?
9.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lyons?
18 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lyons work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sterling (12%, 10 mi), Atlanta Township (6%, 3 mi), Wichita (6%, 65 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lyons walkable?
Lyons is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lyons without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lyons, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lyons
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.