Main Street Building, United Church of Ovid · Photo: GPWITT · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Ovid are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Ovid grades C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. The poverty rate is 22.4%; Michigan has 13.2%. Only 6% work in Ovid; the top destination outside it is Lansing (18%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ovid in brief
Ovid’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Ovid is Lansing, 22 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (107) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Ovid makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Ovid are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ovid residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 22%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2021, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; 2021 is the newest year Michigan has published; with 596 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Ovid
On income, poverty and job access, Ovid is better than 16% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Ovid’s grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Ovid’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, Ovid could be anywhere from D to C.
Near or far: the trip to work from Ovid
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 2021.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Goods jobs make up 53% of work in Ovid
470 jobs are based in Ovid.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ovid, 2011 → 2021: 411 → 470. 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 Ovid’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Ovid on a workday
On a workday 559 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 433 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 (0.79 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.
Where people from Ovid work
Where Ovid clocks in
18% of workers
7% 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.
Ovid’s commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ovid workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 530 commuters (the 9% 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.
Most trips from Ovid start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ovid is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 583 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). 4.8% of Ovid households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ovid’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Ovid ranks 4,653rd of 6,308 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,651 | Crab Orchard WV | 1,139 | $44K | 16.6% | 3.8% | 3% | C− |
| 4,652 | Ness City KS | 1,313 | $65K | 11.5% | 0.2% | 41% | C− |
| 4,653 | Ovid MI | 1,498 | $50K | 22.4% | 0.8% | 6% | C− |
| 4,654 | St. Charles MI | 1,941 | $50K | 15.3% | 5.7% | 9% | C− |
| 4,655 | Hubbard TX | 1,507 | $51K | 15.4% | 6.9% | 10% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Ovid, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Work in the towns next to Ovid
The biggest share goes to Ovid Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ovid workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ovid | – | C− | B+ | 26 min | $50,145 |
| Ovid Township | 2% | C+ | D | 32 min | $105,588 |
| Middlebury Township | under 2% | B | D− | 35 min | $77,344 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ovid’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 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 Ovid: questions
What is the median household income in Ovid?
$50,145 (±$4,902) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ovid?
22.4%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ovid?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ovid work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lansing (18%, 22 mi), St. Johns (7%, 9 mi), East Lansing (6%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Ovid walkable?
Ovid is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ovid without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ovid, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ovid
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.