Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar House · Photo: Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 4.0Oxford draws 14,904 commuters a day, with 2.1 jobs for every working resident
19,774 jobs are based in Oxford for 9,245 working residents. Oxford grades B− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. More than half work in Oxford itself; outside it, Memphis draws the most (5%, 58 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Oxford, in a few figures
Oxford is where the jobs are
Oxford has 19,774 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Oxford has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Oxford went from 11,548 in 2013 to 19,774 in 2023, +71%. The jobs ↓
Oxford draws workers from far and wide
The 19,774 jobs in Oxford are filled from a wide area. Oxford’s own residents hold 25% and the ten next-biggest home towns 9%; the other 66% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
A young workforce
30% of Oxford’s working residents are 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Oxford
On family income, poverty and job access, Oxford is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #27 of 99 in Mississippi. Family income holds Oxford’s grade up ($108,381, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.1%, U.S. 11.9%).
20% of Oxford’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (21% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.1%, against 25.4% for all residents. Unemployment (2.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($108,381), since student households pull the household median down ($64,451).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Oxford could be anywhere from C to B+.
The daily commute in and out of Oxford
On a workday 4,375 residents head out to work and 4,870 work right here.
About 37,000 people are in Oxford on a workday afternoon, 39% more 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.
Oxford is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oxford, 2013 → 2023: 11,548 → 19,774. 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.
Where Oxford’s workforce comes from
Where Oxford clocks in
5% of workers
3% of workers
2% 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.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Mississippi
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oxford workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,520 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% 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 far Oxford’s workers travel
About 22% 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.
In Oxford, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oxford is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #15 of 101 in Mississippi. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 6.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,671 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). 11.7% of Oxford households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Oxford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,477 U.S. towns of 19,000 to 36,000, Oxford comes 1,063rd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Madison MS | 28,575 | $119K | 4.8% | 2.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 759 | Clinton MS | 26,640 | $75K | 9.6% | 3.2% | 14% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 799 | Brandon MS | 26,122 | $93K | 8.5% | 5.2% | 10% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,061 | Northport AL | 31,648 | $81K | 12.3% | 5.7% | 12% | B− |
| 1,062 | Edgewood MD | 24,922 | $81K | 12.0% | 7.9% | 7% | B− |
| 1,063 | Oxford MS | 26,773 | $64K | 25.4% | 2.7% | 53% | B− |
| 1,064 | Cimarron Hills CO | 19,817 | $81K | 10.6% | 7.0% | 4% | B− |
| 1,065 | Bailey's Crossroads VA | 24,271 | $88K | 22.5% | 8.1% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,477 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Mississippi.
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.
- Students. 20% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- 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?
$64,451 (±$5,265) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oxford?
25.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.1%. Mississippi: 18.9%.
How long is the commute from Oxford?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oxford work?
53% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Memphis (5%, 58 mi), Tupelo (3%, 46 mi), Batesville (2%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oxford walkable?
Oxford is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oxford without a car?
2% 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), 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.