Ira Webster Olive House · Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainLexington has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
2,832 jobs are based in Lexington, and 5,388 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Lexington B−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers (Nebraska 11%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Lexington
No single place dominates Lexington’s commute
The biggest draw, Kearney, gets only 4% of working residents, and 64% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Lexington residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Most Lexington residents work close to home
73% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Few Lexington workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 11% across Nebraska. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Lexington
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lexington is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #34 of 57 in Nebraska. Unemployment holds Lexington’s grade up (2.1%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lexington could be anywhere from C to B.
Where Lexington goes to work
Where Lexington clocks in
4% 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.
How far Lexington’s workers travel
About 15% 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.
About 16 minutes each way for Lexington’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lexington workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,088 commuters (the 1% 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.
Lexington on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,252 residents head out to work, 1,136 work right here, and 1,696 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,600 people are in Lexington on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer 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.
What Lexington’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lexington, 2013 → 2023: 2,846 → 2,832. 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 Lexington’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Lexington start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lexington is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns, #49 of 57 in Nebraska. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.5% across Nebraska.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,114 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). 4.8% of Lexington households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lexington’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lexington next to U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000: 1,602nd of 2,507 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 77 | Gretna NE | 9,207 | $124K | 4.2% | 0.6% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 311 | Chalco NE | 10,595 | $86K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,346 | Gering NE | 8,535 | $75K | 12.4% | 0.6% | 22% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,600 | Plattsburgh NY | 11,748 | $72K | 10.4% | 3.7% | 26% | B− |
| 1,601 | Urbana Township OH | 14,105 | $69K | 11.4% | 4.5% | 29% | B− |
| 1,602 | Lexington NE | 11,176 | $68K | 13.8% | 2.1% | 21% | B− |
| 1,603 | Oberlin OH | 8,603 | $81K | 16.1% | 5.6% | 26% | B− |
| 1,604 | Thompson CT | 9,566 | $94K | 5.9% | 7.9% | 10% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Lexington, 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 Lexington: questions
What is the median household income in Lexington?
$67,666 (±$6,195) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lexington?
13.8%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lexington?
16 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lexington work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kearney (4%, 35 mi), Omaha (2%, 195 mi), North Platte (2%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lexington walkable?
Lexington is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lexington 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 Lexington, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lexington
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.