Photo: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing) · Public domainWith 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Oxford works elsewhere
Measured by household income, Oxford is behind 86% of U.S. towns. Oxford has 74 jobs; 497 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Oxford is better than 16% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 3% of U.S. towns (D−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Oxford apart on work
Oxford’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
The poverty rate holds Oxford’s grade up (13.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($51,522, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (6.5%) is left out: Oxford’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, Oxford could be anywhere from D to C+.
Oxford quiets down on a workday
On a workday 493 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 70 people come in from elsewhere.
About 760 people are in Oxford on a workday afternoon, 36% 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.
25% of working residents work in Lafayette
Where Oxford clocks in
14% of workers
7% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Oxford
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oxford, 2013 → 2023: 175 → 74. 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 Oxford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Oxford: about 27 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oxford workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 411 commuters (the 5% 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.
Half of Oxford commutes less than 22 miles
About 27% 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 Oxford commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 431 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). 5.9% of Oxford households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oxford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, Oxford comes 3,190th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Galena IN | 1,549 | $128K | 1.8% | 4.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Ogden Dunes IN | 1,163 | $117K | 3.9% | 2.6% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 127 | Campbell Township IN | 1,172 | $122K | 0.0% | 7.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,188 | Ocklawaha FL | 1,586 | $38K | 13.3% | 13.5% | 1% | C− |
| 3,189 | Daniels WV | 1,489 | $60K | 24.2% | 3.9% | 3% | C− |
| 3,190 | Oxford IN | 1,183 | $52K | 13.9% | 6.5% | 1% | C− |
| 3,191 | Strawberry Point IA | 1,126 | $58K | 11.3% | 5.1% | 9% | C− |
| 3,192 | Raleigh MS | 1,066 | $62K | 13.7% | 16.6% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Oxford, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
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 Oxford: questions
What is the median household income in Oxford?
$51,522 (±$9,349) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oxford?
13.9%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oxford?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oxford work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (25%, 22 mi), West Lafayette (14%, 18 mi), Indianapolis (7%, 78 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oxford walkable?
Oxford is more walkable than 3% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oxford 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 Oxford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oxford
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.