Photo: Gpwitteveen · CC BY-SA 3.0Kingsley has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income C: better than 32% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 62% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 26 minutes each way (Michigan 24, U.S. 26). Only 5% work in Kingsley; the top destination outside it is Traverse City (31%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Kingsley
What’s behind Kingsley’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Kingsley is better than 32% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Kingsley’s grade up (9.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 21% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.4%) is left out: Kingsley’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Kingsley could be anywhere from C− to B−.
31% of working residents work in Traverse City
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Kingsley clocks in
31% of workers
15% of workers
6% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Kingsley quiets down on a workday
On a workday 589 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 290 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Kingsley on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.52 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 2021, primary jobs.
What the 318 jobs in Kingsley are
318 jobs are based in Kingsley. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Kingsley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kingsley, 2011 → 2021: 81 → 318. 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 2021.
About 26 minutes each way, about the MI average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kingsley workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 594 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Kingsley commutes less than 13 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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 2021.
Most trips from Kingsley start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kingsley is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 5.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 642 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 9.8% of Kingsley households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kingsley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kingsley is 3,475th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Kingsley, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,473 | Rose Township PA | 1,118 | $71K | 9.1% | 1.5% | 3% | C |
| 3,474 | Russell GA | 1,089 | $61K | 18.0% | 1.5% | 1% | C |
| 3,475 | Kingsley MI | 1,455 | $67K | 9.2% | 4.4% | 5% | C |
| 3,476 | Ashton Township IL | 1,120 | $71K | 12.0% | 7.9% | 11% | C |
| 3,477 | Washington Township IN | 1,882 | $59K | 8.5% | 3.3% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2021, 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 Kingsley: questions
What is the median household income in Kingsley?
$67,321 (±$9,371) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kingsley?
9.2%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kingsley?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kingsley work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Traverse City (31%, 12 mi), Garfield Township (15%, 11 mi), Paradise Township (6%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Kingsley walkable?
Kingsley is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kingsley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kingsley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kingsley
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.