With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Kempner works elsewhere
Jobs and income earn Kempner B+; getting around on foot earns it C−. 63 jobs are based in Kempner, against 440 working residents. Hardly any stay in Kempner for work; outside it, Copperas Cove is the main destination (12%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Kempner, in brief
Kempner is a place people come home to
There are 63 jobs based in Kempner, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Kempner has about 920 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% 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 440 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Kempner
On income, poverty and job access, Kempner is better than 66% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Kempner’s grade up (2.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Kempner’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, Kempner could be anywhere from B− to A−.
How a workday changes Kempner
On a workday 438 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 61 people come in from elsewhere.
About 920 people are in Kempner on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Half of Kempner commutes less than 42 miles
About 42% 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.
The places Kempner commutes to
Where Kempner clocks in
12% of workers
12% 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 Kempner’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kempner, 2013 → 2023: 44 → 63. 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 Kempner’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Kempner, about 31 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kempner workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 521 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% 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.
In Kempner, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kempner is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 641 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). 0.7% of Kempner households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kempner’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kempner places 1,099th of 5,400 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 30 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,097 | Los Alamos CA | 1,163 | $79K | 2.8% | 6.0% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,098 | Seville FL | 1,014 | $143K | 4.7% | 5.5% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,099 | Kempner TX | 1,297 | $75K | 2.5% | 5.3% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,100 | Clay Township IN | 1,661 | $92K | 5.3% | 1.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,101 | Hutchinson Township MN | 1,219 | $109K | 6.0% | 1.9% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Kempner, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
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 Kempner: questions
What is the median household income in Kempner?
$75,357 (±$15,634) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kempner?
2.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kempner?
31 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kempner work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Copperas Cove (12%, 5 mi), Killeen (12%, 14 mi), Austin (12%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kempner walkable?
Kempner is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kempner without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kempner, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kempner
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.