Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Households in Syracuse have lower incomes than those in 62% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Syracuse; the top destination outside it is Bear Creek Township (6%, 11 miles). Below the poverty line: 7.7% of residents, where Kansas as a whole has 11.3%. For jobs and income Syracuse is better than 28% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (C).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Syracuse
The poverty rate holds Syracuse’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Syracuse’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, Syracuse could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who works in Syracuse, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 391 residents head out to work, 194 work right here, and 426 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 (1.06 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 Syracuse’s working residents head each day
Where Syracuse clocks in
2% 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.
The 620 jobs based in Syracuse
620 jobs are based in Syracuse.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Syracuse, 2013 → 2023: 819 → 620. 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 Syracuse’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Syracuse spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Syracuse workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 716 commuters (the 12% 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.
Miles to work from Syracuse
About 26% 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.
Getting around Syracuse: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 814 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). 2.2% of Syracuse households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Syracuse’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Syracuse ranks: 3,334th of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Oxford Township KS | 2,058 | $163K | 1.9% | 2.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,332 | Prophetstown IL | 1,887 | $65K | 11.7% | 7.2% | 14% | C |
| 3,333 | Pocahontas IA | 1,803 | $67K | 8.7% | 4.1% | 37% | C |
| 3,334 | Syracuse KS | 1,810 | $67K | 7.7% | 4.1% | 33% | C |
| 3,335 | Hayfield MN | 1,358 | $69K | 15.9% | 2.6% | 13% | C |
| 3,336 | Coupeville WA | 1,920 | $82K | 12.8% | 1.9% | 13% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | 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 Syracuse, 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 Syracuse: questions
What is the median household income in Syracuse?
$67,361 (±$17,343) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Syracuse?
7.7%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Syracuse?
16 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Syracuse work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bear Creek Township (6%, 11 mi), Garden City (2%, 52 mi), Wichita (2%, 243 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Syracuse walkable?
Syracuse is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Syracuse without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Syracuse, from the people who make the trip.
More of Syracuse
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.