Photo: King of Hearts · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Oak Park are higher than in 96% of U.S. towns
At home: 31% of workers have no commute at all (California 17%). Below the poverty line: 4.2% of residents, against 12.0% across California. The two grades for Oak Park are B+ 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
Oak Park at work: what stands out
A lot of Oak Park works from home
31% of Oak Park workers work from home, against 17% across California. Time on the road ↓
Oak Park and Los Angeles trade workers both ways
Los Angeles is the top workplace for Oak Park residents (24%) and also where the most people who work in Oak Park come from (19% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Oak Park is a place people come home to
There are 1,279 jobs based in Oak Park, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Oak Park has about 9,700 people in it, 30% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Oak Park has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Oak Park went from 922 in 2013 to 1,279 in 2023, +39%. The jobs ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Oak Park’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Oak Park is better than 72% of U.S. towns, #267 of 847 in California. Household income holds Oak Park’s grade up ($163,085, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (7.0%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Oak Park could be anywhere from B to A.
Each way, about 31 minutes from Oak Park
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oak Park workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,588 commuters (the 31% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
24% of working residents work in Los Angeles
Where Oak Park clocks in
14% of workers
5% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Oak Park
On a workday 5,046 residents head out to work, 295 work right here, and 984 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,700 people are in Oak Park on a workday afternoon, 30% fewer than live here.
0.24 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 2023, primary jobs.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Oak Park
1,279 jobs are based in Oak Park.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oak Park, 2013 → 2023: 922 → 1,279. 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 Oak Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Oak Park goes to work
About 18% 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 of Oak Park commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oak Park is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns, #673 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,612 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 1.8% of Oak Park households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Oak Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Oak Park is 914th of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 71 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 912 | Spanish Fort AL | 11,203 | $99K | 5.8% | 4.4% | 8% | B+ |
| 913 | Elon NC | 11,366 | $85K | 20.0% | 5.1% | 7% | B+ |
| 914 | Oak Park CA | 13,757 | $163K | 4.2% | 7.0% | 6% | B+ |
| 915 | Destin FL | 14,046 | $89K | 7.4% | 2.1% | 27% | B+ |
| 916 | Forest City FL | 15,312 | $86K | 9.5% | 3.9% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Oak Park, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Next door is work for 14% of Oak Park
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Oak Park workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Park | – | B+ | B− | 31 min | $163,085 |
| Thousand Oaks | 14% | B+ | A | 25 min | $135,603 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Thousand Oaks. Darker towns draw more of Oak Park’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 Oak Park: questions
What is the median household income in Oak Park?
$163,085 (±$8,800) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oak Park?
4.2%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oak Park?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 31% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oak Park work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (24%, 23 mi), Thousand Oaks (14%, 6 mi), Westlake Village (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oak Park walkable?
Oak Park is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oak Park without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oak Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oak Park
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.