Lawton’s household incomes are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 19.3% of residents, next to 13.2% for Michigan as a whole. The two grades for Lawton are C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in ten stay in Lawton for work; outside it, Antwerp Township is the main destination (20%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lawton, in a few figures
How Lawton earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Lawton is better than 21% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Lawton’s grade up (ahead of 57% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($52,652, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (7.9%) is left out: Lawton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lawton could be anywhere from D to C+.
Where Lawton’s working residents head each day
Where Lawton clocks in
11% 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.
Who works in Lawton, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 736 residents head out to work, 84 work right here, and 574 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
In Lawton, 29% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
658 jobs are based in Lawton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lawton, 2011 → 2021: 699 → 658. 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 2021.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lawton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Lawton, about 25 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lawton workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 756 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% 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.
The distance from Lawton 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 2021.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Lawton, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lawton is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 826 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). 10.7% of Lawton households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lawton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lawton places 3,980th of 5,656 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 102 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 212 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 255 | Sylvan Lake MI | 1,685 | $106K | 5.4% | 2.9% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,978 | Stony Prairie OH | 1,701 | $60K | 43.9% | 4.6% | 9% | C− |
| 3,979 | Williamsport IN | 1,954 | $66K | 15.0% | 1.9% | 13% | C− |
| 3,980 | Lawton MI | 1,861 | $53K | 19.3% | 7.9% | 10% | C− |
| 3,981 | Natalia TX | 1,373 | $46K | 24.1% | 3.0% | 3% | C− |
| 3,982 | Laurens NY | 2,301 | $72K | 10.2% | 9.8% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Lawton, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2021, 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 Lawton: questions
What is the median household income in Lawton?
$52,652 (±$6,747) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lawton?
19.3%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lawton?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lawton work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Antwerp Township (20%, 3 mi), Kalamazoo (11%, 15 mi), Portage (8%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Lawton walkable?
Lawton is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lawton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lawton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lawton
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.