Photo: Kybluegrass · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Stearns earn less than those in 80% of U.S. towns
33.2% of residents live below the poverty line; Kentucky has 16.1%. Stearns grades D for jobs and income and D for walkability. About one in ten work in Stearns; the top destination outside it is Somerset (11%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Stearns
Stearns’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Stearns is Somerset, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (44) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Stearns than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Stearns fell from 1,043 in 2013 to 569 in 2023, −45%. 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 ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 406 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Stearns’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Stearns is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Stearns’ grade up ($55,931, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (7.3%) is left out: Stearns’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, Stearns could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The distance from Stearns to work
About 32% 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.
Stearns is a services town
569 jobs are based in Stearns.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stearns, 2013 → 2023: 1,043 → 569. 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 Stearns’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Stearns, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 371 residents head out to work, 35 work right here, and 534 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Stearns on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.40 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.
The places Stearns commutes to
Where Stearns clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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.
Getting to work from Stearns takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stearns workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 348 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 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.
Driving is how Stearns gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stearns is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Kentucky.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 402 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). 0.0% of Stearns households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Stearns’ commuters take a bus or train.
Stearns and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,389 | Emory TX | 1,413 | $37K | 29.1% | 3.1% | 6% | D |
| 4,390 | Franklin Township IN | 1,119 | $39K | 21.7% | 2.6% | 2% | D |
| 4,391 | Stearns KY | 1,271 | $56K | 33.2% | 7.3% | 9% | D |
| 4,392 | Butler AL | 1,698 | $47K | 16.5% | 1.8% | 23% | D |
| 4,393 | St. Francis KS | 1,265 | $50K | 15.4% | 3.3% | 40% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Stearns, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
Work next door: 13% of Stearns’ workers
The biggest share goes to Whitley City (8%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Stearns’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 Stearns: questions
What is the median household income in Stearns?
$55,931 (±$10,000) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stearns?
33.2%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stearns?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stearns work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Somerset (11%, 28 mi), Whitley City (8%, 2 mi), Pine Knot (5%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stearns walkable?
Stearns is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stearns without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Stearns, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stearns
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.