Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Sublette trail those of 64% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Sublette itself; outside it, Haskell Township draws the most (17%, 5 miles). Below the poverty line: 13.2% of residents (Kansas 11.3%). For jobs and income Sublette is better than 17% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Sublette and work: the main findings
Fewer jobs are based in Sublette than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Sublette fell from 594 in 2013 to 387 in 2023, −35%. 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 ↓
Sublette workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 25 minutes each way, against 20 across Kansas. Over a year that’s about 192 hours of commuting, 38 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 434 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Sublette’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Household income holds Sublette’s grade up ($66,331, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Sublette’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Sublette could be anywhere from D− to B−.
What Sublette’s employers do
387 jobs are based in Sublette.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sublette, 2013 → 2023: 594 → 387. 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 Sublette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Sublette: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sublette workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 627 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.
The daily commute in and out of Sublette
On a workday 366 residents head out to work, 68 work right here, and 319 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 (0.89 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 Sublette’s working residents head each day
Where Sublette 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.
How far it is to work from Sublette
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.
Few in Sublette walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 669 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). 1.2% of Sublette households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sublette’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Sublette is 3,896th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,894 | Henrietta Township MN | 1,595 | $73K | 15.3% | 4.2% | 2% | C− |
| 3,895 | Corning IA | 1,511 | $65K | 12.4% | 6.0% | 31% | C− |
| 3,896 | Sublette KS | 1,343 | $66K | 13.2% | 3.7% | 16% | C− |
| 3,897 | Platte SD | 1,230 | $73K | 14.7% | 1.0% | 37% | C− |
| 3,898 | Rutherford TN | 1,147 | $51K | 12.0% | 3.3% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Sublette, 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 Sublette: questions
What is the median household income in Sublette?
$66,331 (±$15,808) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sublette?
13.2%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sublette?
25 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sublette work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Haskell Township (17%, 5 mi), Satanta (8%, 8 mi), Dudley Township (8%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sublette walkable?
Sublette is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sublette without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sublette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sublette
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.