Lee and Gottliebe Fritz House · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Household incomes in Gordon are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Gordon; the top destination outside it is Rushville (5%, 15 miles). Poverty touches 14.1% of residents, where Nebraska as a whole has 10.6%. Gordon grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Gordon’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Gordon is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Gordon’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Gordon’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, Gordon could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Who works in Gordon, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 420 residents head out to work, 283 work right here, and 429 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 (1.01 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.
Where Gordon goes to work
Where Gordon clocks in
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.
Inside Gordon’s 712 jobs
712 jobs are based in Gordon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gordon, 2013 → 2023: 738 → 712. 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 Gordon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 16 minutes to work from Gordon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gordon workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 732 commuters (the 4% 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.
How far it is to work from Gordon
About 28% 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.
Driving is how Gordon gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gordon is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 763 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). 6.0% of Gordon households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gordon’s commuters take a bus or train.
4,849th of 5,877: where Gordon ranks among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 172 | Yutan NE | 1,451 | $103K | 0.7% | 8.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 234 | Buccaneer Bay NE | 1,418 | $161K | 4.9% | 0.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 307 | Pohocco Township NE | 1,296 | $100K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,847 | Marmaduke AR | 1,254 | $51K | 23.7% | 0.9% | 8% | D |
| 4,848 | Mineral Springs AR | 1,036 | $52K | 16.1% | 3.4% | 6% | D |
| 4,849 | Gordon NE | 1,417 | $59K | 14.1% | 2.4% | 40% | D |
| 4,850 | Long Beach WA | 1,769 | $53K | 13.1% | 3.3% | 26% | D |
| 4,851 | Eagle River WI | 1,715 | $55K | 14.4% | 4.9% | 27% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Gordon, 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 Gordon: questions
What is the median household income in Gordon?
$59,226 (±$7,028) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gordon?
14.1%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gordon?
16 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gordon work?
40% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rushville (5%, 15 mi), Batesland (4%, 23 mi), Omaha (2%, 333 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gordon walkable?
Gordon is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gordon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gordon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gordon
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.