Photo: Quentin Melson · CC BY-SA 4.0Oolitic has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
The two grades for Oolitic are B− for jobs and income and C for walkability. Oolitic has 124 jobs for 440 working residents. Measured by household income, Oolitic is behind 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Oolitic apart
The figures behind Oolitic’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Oolitic is better than 53% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Oolitic’s grade up (3.1%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($59,018, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.0%) is left out: Oolitic’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, Oolitic could be anywhere from C+ to B.
The workday shuffle in and out of Oolitic
On a workday 436 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 120 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Oolitic on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
22% of working residents work in Bloomington
Where Oolitic clocks in
22% of workers
20% of workers
6% 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 Oolitic’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oolitic, 2013 → 2023: 213 → 124. 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 Oolitic’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Oolitic takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oolitic workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 586 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% 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.
How many miles Oolitic 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.
Oolitic is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oolitic is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Indiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 632 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). 5.5% of Oolitic households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oolitic’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Oolitic ranks 1,131st of 3,771 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Campbell Township IN | 1,172 | $122K | 0.0% | 7.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Greenville IN | 1,452 | $135K | 5.6% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,129 | Lewis NY | 1,239 | $82K | 3.2% | 2.1% | 4% | B− |
| 1,130 | Murphys Estates SC | 1,064 | $90K | 14.6% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| 1,131 | Oolitic IN | 1,142 | $59K | 3.1% | 4.0% | 1% | B− |
| 1,132 | Perham Township MN | 1,062 | $104K | 9.5% | 8.6% | 2% | B− |
| 1,133 | Covington NY | 1,231 | $68K | 4.8% | 2.8% | 8% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Oolitic, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
The towns around Oolitic
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Oolitic workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oolitic | – | B− | C | 23 min | $59,018 |
| East Oolitic | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. East Oolitic: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Oolitic’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 Oolitic: questions
What is the median household income in Oolitic?
$59,018 (±$9,070) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oolitic?
3.1%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oolitic?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oolitic work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bloomington (22%, 19 mi), Bedford (20%, 3 mi), Indianapolis (6%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oolitic walkable?
Oolitic is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oolitic without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oolitic, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oolitic
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.