Valley Falls’ household incomes are lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
5.9% of residents are in poverty, where Kansas as a whole has 11.3%. Jobs and income earn Valley Falls C; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in ten stay in Valley Falls for work; outside it, Topeka is the main destination (17%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Valley Falls: the gist
Valley Falls’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Valley Falls is Topeka, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (89) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Many jobs in Valley Falls pay little
31% of the jobs based in Valley Falls pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Valley Falls workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 27 minutes each way, against 20 across Kansas. Over a year that’s about 207 hours of commuting, 54 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 516 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Valley Falls’ grade
On income, poverty and job access, Valley Falls is better than 27% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Valley Falls’ grade up; household income pulls it down ($46,681, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Valley Falls’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, Valley Falls could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Valley Falls
About 15% 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.
Inside Valley Falls’ 323 jobs
323 jobs are based in Valley Falls.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Valley Falls, 2013 → 2023: 271 → 323. 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 Valley Falls’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Valley Falls, about 27 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Valley Falls workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 556 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Valley Falls on a workday afternoon
On a workday 470 residents head out to work, 46 work right here, and 277 people come in from elsewhere.
About 860 people are in Valley Falls on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.63 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.
Commuting out of Valley Falls: the destinations
Where Valley Falls clocks in
17% of workers
6% of workers
6% 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.
Driving is how Valley Falls gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Valley Falls is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across Kansas, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 639 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). 20.8% of Valley Falls households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Valley Falls’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Valley Falls ranks 1,838th of 3,133 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Payne Township KS | 1,375 | $104K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,836 | Plainfield VT | 1,218 | $69K | 11.6% | 0.5% | 7% | C |
| 1,837 | Rio VA | 1,252 | $56K | 22.2% | 8.0% | 5% | C |
| 1,838 | Valley Falls KS | 1,055 | $47K | 5.9% | 1.8% | 9% | C |
| 1,839 | Echo Township MI | 1,009 | $71K | 8.5% | 4.8% | 0% | C |
| 1,840 | Pine Township PA | 1,023 | $56K | 9.6% | 4.5% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Valley Falls, 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 Valley Falls: questions
What is the median household income in Valley Falls?
$46,681 (±$21,625) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Valley Falls?
5.9%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Valley Falls?
27 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Valley Falls work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Topeka (17%, 24 mi), Winchester (6%, 10 mi), Leavenworth (6%, 29 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Valley Falls walkable?
Valley Falls is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Valley Falls without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 21% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Valley Falls, from the people who make the trip.
More of Valley Falls
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.