Photo: Leanne Watts · CC BY-SA 3.0Oxford has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Household incomes here are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns. Employers in Oxford report 121 jobs; 368 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Oxford C+; getting around on foot earns it C.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Oxford in brief
Oxford’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Oxford is Wichita, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (81) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Oxford workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 32 minutes each way, against 20 across Kansas. Over a year that’s about 245 hours of commuting, 92 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 368 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Oxford gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Oxford is better than 42% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Oxford’s grade up (7.1%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($59,167, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.2%) 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 C to B.
The commute from Oxford, by distance
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting to work from Oxford takes about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oxford workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 376 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 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.
Oxford by day and by night
On a workday 349 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 102 people come in from elsewhere.
About 790 people are in Oxford on a workday afternoon, 24% 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 2024, primary jobs.
22% of working residents work in Wichita
Where Oxford clocks in
22% of workers
8% 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 kinds of work in Oxford
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oxford, 2014 → 2024: 167 → 121. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Oxford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Oxford is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oxford is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across Kansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 398 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). 12.5% of Oxford households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oxford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Oxford next to U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400: 1,267th of 3,133 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Payne Township KS | 1,375 | $104K | 1.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,265 | Fairfield WI | 1,046 | $85K | 11.5% | 0.2% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,266 | Bracey VA | 1,242 | $65K | 3.1% | 3.6% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,267 | Oxford KS | 1,038 | $59K | 7.1% | 1.2% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,268 | Chester Township MI | 1,354 | $74K | 5.3% | 10.0% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,269 | Cleveland Township MI | 1,135 | $82K | 7.9% | 1.7% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Kansas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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?
$59,167 (±$4,780) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oxford?
7.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oxford?
32 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oxford work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wichita (22%, 30 mi), Wellington (9%, 13 mi), Winfield (8%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Oxford walkable?
Oxford is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 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 12% 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), 2024, 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.