Photo: Kevin Zollman Kzollman 22:00, 4 May 2006 (UTC) · CC BY-SA 3.032% of Manhattan’s residents are college students
Jobs & income B−: better than 48% of U.S. towns on family income, poverty and job access · #85 of 151 in Kansas.
Walkability A: more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns · #7 of 151 in Kansas.
Family incomes here are higher than in 54% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 17 minutes each way (Kansas 20, U.S. 26). More than half work in Manhattan; the top destination outside it is Topeka (6%, 50 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Manhattan, in brief
What’s behind Manhattan’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Manhattan is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #85 of 151 in Kansas. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Manhattan’s grade.
32% of Manhattan’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (25% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 11.3%, against 23.3% for all residents. Unemployment (3.6%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($95,475), since student households pull the household median down ($60,172).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Manhattan could be anywhere from C+ to B.
What the 26,378 jobs in Manhattan are
26,378 jobs are based in Manhattan. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Manhattan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manhattan, 2013 → 2023: 33,579 → 26,378. 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.
Manhattan fills up on a workday
On a workday 7,510 residents head out to work, 10,335 work right here, and 16,043 people come in from elsewhere.
About 63,000 people are in Manhattan on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 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.
6% of working residents work in Topeka
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Manhattan clocks in
6% of workers
3% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Kansas
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manhattan workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 27,313 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 85% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Manhattan commutes less than 3 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 23% 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.
Manhattan is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Manhattan is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns, #7 of 151 in Kansas. Both inputs place Manhattan 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 31,246 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). 4.3% of Manhattan households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Manhattan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Manhattan is 589th of 834 U.S. towns of 38,000 to 74,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Manhattan, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Liberty Township OH | 40,625 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.5% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Lenexa KS | 60,506 | $103K | 5.4% | 2.8% | 17% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Shawnee KS | 69,848 | $110K | 5.3% | 3.3% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 587 | Mankato MN | 46,529 | $67K | 20.6% | 6.0% | 47% | B− |
| 588 | Lakewood WA | 62,755 | $75K | 13.2% | 5.7% | 15% | B− |
| 589 | Manhattan KS | 54,673 | $60K | 23.3% | 3.6% | 58% | B− |
| 590 | Gainesville GA | 49,221 | $67K | 20.1% | 3.3% | 31% | B− |
| 591 | Portage Township IN | 48,733 | $77K | 11.9% | 6.9% | 16% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 695 | Salina KS | 46,094 | $62K | 13.0% | 5.2% | 61% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 834 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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.
Manhattan and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Blue Township (2%). Darker towns draw more of Manhattan’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Manhattan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | – | B− | A | 17 min | $60,172 |
| Manhattan Township | 1% | C+ | B− | 12 min | $63,182 |
| Ogden Township | under 2% | B | C− | 20 min | $83,864 |
| Blue Township | 2% | A− | C | 21 min | $118,385 |
| Wildcat Township | under 2% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Ogden | under 2% | B− | C− | 22 min | $68,421 |
| Madison Township | under 2% | D | B+ | 9 min | $56,367 |
Same-state neighbors only. Wildcat Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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.
- Students. 32% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Manhattan: questions
What is the median household income in Manhattan?
$60,172 (±$3,376) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manhattan?
23.3% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 11.3%. Kansas: 11.3%.
How long is the commute from Manhattan?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Manhattan work?
58% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Topeka (6%, 50 mi), Junction City (3%, 17 mi), Wichita (3%, 111 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manhattan walkable?
Manhattan is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manhattan without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Manhattan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manhattan
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.