Photo: JonRidinger · CC BY-SA 4.037% of Kent’s residents are college students
About one in seven work in Kent; the top destination outside it is Akron (10%, 9 miles). Kent grades B for jobs and income and A for walkability. The trip to work takes 21 minutes on average (Ohio 23, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Kent: the gist
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Kent
On family income, poverty and job access, Kent is better than 56% of U.S. towns, #557 of 992 in Ohio. Job access by car holds Kent’s grade up (ahead of 75% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.2%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on family income.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (22% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 17.2%, against 27.1% for all residents. Unemployment (11.2%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($103,661), since student households pull the household median down ($42,964).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Kent could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 8,532 residents head out to work, 1,426 work right here, and 9,456 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 (1.09 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 the trip to work from Kent ends
Where Kent clocks in
10% of workers
7% of workers
3% 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 10,882 jobs based in Kent
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kent, 2013 → 2023: 10,221 → 10,882. 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 Kent’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Kent, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kent workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,828 commuters (the 16% who work from home are left out). Across Ohio: 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Kent
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Kent
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kent is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #53 of 993 in Ohio. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,891 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). 16.1% of Kent households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Kent’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Kent is 935th among 1,509 U.S. towns of 19,000 to 37,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Hudson OH | 23,085 | $171K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Genoa Township OH | 27,720 | $177K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 933 | Sun City West AZ | 27,425 | $64K | 7.6% | 3.8% | 9% | B |
| 934 | Greenfield CA | 21,138 | $85K | 11.4% | 2.6% | 15% | B |
| 935 | Kent OH | 27,737 | $43K | 27.1% | 11.2% | 14% | B |
| 936 | Soledad CA | 26,357 | $97K | 16.7% | 2.7% | 19% | B |
| 937 | Rockledge FL | 31,343 | $84K | 9.0% | 5.0% | 13% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,509 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Kent, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
Next door to Kent
The biggest share goes to Stow (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kent workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kent | – | B | A | 21 min | $42,964 |
| Franklin Township | under 3% | B+ | A− | 19 min | $64,034 |
| Brimfield Township | under 3% | A− | B− | 26 min | $91,132 |
| Stow | 3% | A− | B | 24 min | $93,727 |
| Tallmadge | under 3% | A− | C+ | 25 min | $89,410 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Kent’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.
- Students. 37% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Kent: questions
What is the median household income in Kent?
$42,964 (±$4,620) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kent?
27.1% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 17.2%. Ohio: 13.3%.
How long is the commute from Kent?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kent work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Akron (10%, 9 mi), Cleveland (7%, 28 mi), Stow (3%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kent walkable?
Kent is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kent without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kent, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kent
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.