Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainHouseholds in Ainsworth have lower incomes than those in 83% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Ainsworth itself; outside it, Bassett draws the most (5%, 16 miles). The poverty rate is 13.5% (Nebraska 10.6%). Ainsworth grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ainsworth and work: the main findings
Inside Ainsworth’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ainsworth is better than 8% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ainsworth’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Ainsworth’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, Ainsworth could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Getting to work from Ainsworth takes about 13 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ainsworth workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 770 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Nebraska: 86% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 437 residents head out to work, 245 work right here, and 448 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 (1.02 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.
Out of Ainsworth to work: where people go
Where Ainsworth clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
What the 693 jobs in Ainsworth are
693 jobs are based in Ainsworth.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ainsworth, 2013 → 2023: 835 → 693. 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 Ainsworth’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Ainsworth commutes
About 23% 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.
Most trips from Ainsworth start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ainsworth is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 6.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 838 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). 6.6% of Ainsworth households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ainsworth’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Ainsworth ranks 4,983rd of 5,794 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 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Yutan NE | 1,451 | $103K | 0.7% | 8.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 261 | Buccaneer Bay NE | 1,418 | $161K | 4.9% | 0.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 338 | Pohocco Township NE | 1,296 | $100K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,981 | Judsonia AR | 1,906 | $43K | 29.0% | 3.0% | 3% | D |
| 4,982 | Pierce City MO | 1,275 | $51K | 31.8% | 5.2% | 4% | D |
| 4,983 | Ainsworth NE | 1,585 | $53K | 13.5% | 0.9% | 36% | D |
| 4,984 | Pleasant Hill Township IL | 1,178 | $57K | 14.9% | 2.3% | 6% | D |
| 4,985 | Otego Township IL | 1,382 | $54K | 18.2% | 3.0% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Ainsworth, the top three, the last and three more from Nebraska.
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 Ainsworth: questions
What is the median household income in Ainsworth?
$53,490 (±$9,282) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ainsworth?
13.5%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ainsworth?
13 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ainsworth work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bassett (5%, 16 mi), Omaha (4%, 215 mi), Long Pine (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ainsworth walkable?
Ainsworth is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ainsworth without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ainsworth, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ainsworth
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.