Photo: Palbert01 · CC BY-SA 4.0Plainville’s household incomes are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 4% of workers (Kansas 12%). Poverty touches 2.5% of residents, against 11.3% across Kansas. The two grades for Plainville 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
The work figures that set Plainville apart
Plainville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Plainville is Hays, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (125) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Plainville than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Plainville fell from 760 in 2013 to 519 in 2023, −32%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Plainville are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 20 across Kansas. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Kansas 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 786 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Plainville gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Plainville is better than 39% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Plainville’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Plainville’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, Plainville could be anywhere from C to B−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Plainville
About 22% 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 519 jobs based in Plainville
519 jobs are based in Plainville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Plainville, 2013 → 2023: 760 → 519. 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 Plainville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 14 minutes to work from Plainville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Plainville workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 839 commuters (the 4% 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.
Plainville on a workday afternoon
On a workday 591 residents head out to work, 195 work right here, and 324 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Plainville on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.66 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
16% of working residents work in Hays
Where Plainville clocks in
Lines 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.
Plainville is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Plainville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Plainville 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 872 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). 6.9% of Plainville households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Plainville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Plainville next to U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200: 2,622nd of 5,381 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,620 | Burgess Township IL | 2,140 | $65K | 11.6% | 3.1% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,621 | Sand Prairie Township IL | 1,248 | $68K | 11.2% | 0.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,622 | Plainville KS | 1,657 | $59K | 2.5% | 1.5% | 25% | C+ |
| 2,623 | Greenwich NY | 1,662 | $71K | 9.1% | 3.4% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,624 | Black River NY | 1,208 | $87K | 11.8% | 19.8% | <1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Plainville, 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 Plainville: questions
What is the median household income in Plainville?
$59,236 (±$6,857) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Plainville?
2.5%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Plainville?
14 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Plainville work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hays (16%, 24 mi), Township 11 (12%, 1 mi), Stockton (6%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Plainville walkable?
Plainville is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Plainville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Plainville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Plainville
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.