Photo: Kaethesson · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Parsons are lower than in 85% of U.S. towns
More than half stay in Parsons for work; outside it, North Township is the main destination (3%, 3 miles). 20.9% of residents are in poverty (Kansas 11.3%). The two grades for Parsons are C for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Parsons at work: what stands out
Parsons is where the jobs are
Parsons has 6,160 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Parsons are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 20 across Kansas. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kansas worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Parsons workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Parsons’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
Why Parsons gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Parsons is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #121 of 151 in Kansas. Unemployment holds Parsons’ grade up (2.2%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Parsons could be anywhere from C− to C+.
The daily flow of workers through Parsons
On a workday 1,792 residents head out to work, 2,139 work right here, and 4,021 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Parsons on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 13 minutes each way, quicker than most of Kansas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Parsons workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,001 commuters (the 6% 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.
Parsons makes things: 29% of its jobs are in goods
6,160 jobs are based in Parsons.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Parsons, 2013 → 2023: 7,037 → 6,160. 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 Parsons’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Parsons’s workers come from
Where Parsons clocks in
3% of workers
2% 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.
How far Parsons goes to work
About 20% 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 Parsons commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Parsons is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #56 of 151 in Kansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% 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 4,245 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). 4.4% of Parsons households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Parsons’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Parsons ranks: 2,231st of 2,867 U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 205 | Tecumseh Township KS | 7,829 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 258 | Eudora Township KS | 7,870 | $119K | 4.6% | 2.3% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 366 | Eudora KS | 6,506 | $118K | 4.9% | 2.9% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,229 | Pipe Creek Township IN | 12,354 | $63K | 14.9% | 5.6% | 20% | C |
| 2,230 | Fair Oaks GA | 9,014 | $63K | 23.6% | 8.4% | 2% | C |
| 2,231 | Parsons KS | 9,315 | $52K | 20.9% | 2.2% | 54% | C |
| 2,232 | Crookston MN | 7,375 | $57K | 15.6% | 3.4% | 59% | C |
| 2,233 | Waggaman LA | 11,330 | $68K | 24.5% | 8.5% | 3% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,867 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Parsons, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
Parsons and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Parsons workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parsons | – | C | B | 13 min | $52,428 |
| North Township | 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Osage Township | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. North Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Osage Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to North Township. Darker towns draw more of Parsons’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 Parsons: questions
What is the median household income in Parsons?
$52,428 (±$4,780) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Parsons?
20.9%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Parsons?
13 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Parsons work?
54% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are North Township (3%, 3 mi), Pittsburg (3%, 32 mi), Wichita (2%, 117 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Parsons walkable?
Parsons is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Parsons without a car?
0% 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 Parsons, from the people who make the trip.
More of Parsons
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.