Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainCambridge’s household incomes are lower than in 71% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Cambridge; the top destination outside it is Arapahoe (10%, 14 miles). 7.9% of residents are in poverty; Nebraska has 10.6%. Jobs and income earn Cambridge C−; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Inside Cambridge’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Cambridge is better than 23% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Cambridge’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Cambridge’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, Cambridge could be anywhere from D to C+.
Who works in Cambridge, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 365 residents head out to work, 64 work right here, and 330 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 (0.92 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The towns that employ Cambridge’s residents
Where Cambridge clocks in
8% 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.
What Cambridge’s employers do
394 jobs are based in Cambridge.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cambridge, 2013 → 2023: 488 → 394. 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 Cambridge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Cambridge: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cambridge workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 434 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Nebraska: 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.
Miles to work from Cambridge
About 21% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Cambridge
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cambridge is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 487 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). 4.9% of Cambridge households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cambridge’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Cambridge ranks: 2,004th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 132 | Pohocco Township NE | 1,296 | $100K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Arlington NE | 1,329 | $94K | 3.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 189 | Fort Calhoun NE | 1,108 | $102K | 6.9% | 2.1% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,002 | Fairlee VT | 1,048 | $75K | 14.7% | 0.7% | 14% | C− |
| 2,003 | Butte Valley CA | 1,087 | $98K | 31.2% | 0.0% | 5% | C− |
| 2,004 | Cambridge NE | 1,066 | $62K | 7.9% | 0.0% | 15% | C− |
| 2,005 | Forest OH | 1,332 | $56K | 11.5% | 2.5% | 9% | C− |
| 2,006 | Gillett WI | 1,276 | $55K | 11.5% | 5.2% | 8% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Cambridge, the top three, the last and three more from Nebraska.
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 Cambridge: questions
What is the median household income in Cambridge?
$61,528 (±$12,227) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cambridge?
7.9%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cambridge?
16 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cambridge work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Arapahoe (10%, 14 mi), Oxford (8%, 28 mi), Holdrege (7%, 43 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cambridge walkable?
Cambridge is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cambridge without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cambridge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cambridge
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.