Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainWayne’s household incomes are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns
19.9% of residents live below the poverty line, where Nebraska as a whole has 10.6%. Jobs and income earn Wayne D; getting around on foot earns it A. More than half stay in Wayne for work; outside it, Wakefield is the main destination (6%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Wayne
Commutes from Wayne are quick
The average trip to work takes 11 minutes, against 19 across Nebraska. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Nebraska worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
31% of Wayne’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.
Income, poverty and work: Wayne’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wayne is better than 9% of U.S. towns, #57 of 57 in Nebraska. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Wayne’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wayne could be anywhere from D− to C.
Getting to work from Wayne takes about 11 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wayne workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,639 commuters (the 15% 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.
Inside Wayne’s 3,093 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wayne, 2013 → 2023: 2,637 → 3,093. 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 Wayne’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Wayne
On a workday 1,092 residents head out to work, 1,154 work right here, and 1,939 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,200 people are in Wayne on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.38 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.
Out of Wayne to work: where people go
Where Wayne clocks in
5% of workers
5% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Wayne
About 20% 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.
Wayne is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wayne is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #6 of 57 in Nebraska. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 13.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,118 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). 8.7% of Wayne households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wayne’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Wayne sits among U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Waverly NE | 4,533 | $112K | 0.5% | 0.0% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 426 | Township 1 NE | 4,517 | $126K | 5.9% | 2.9% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 555 | Ralston NE | 6,382 | $69K | 4.0% | 2.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,181 | Live Oak FL | 7,248 | $59K | 16.3% | 14.2% | 25% | D |
| 3,182 | Blakely GA | 5,156 | $50K | 26.8% | 4.2% | 24% | D |
| 3,183 | Wayne NE | 6,338 | $54K | 19.9% | 6.5% | 51% | D |
| 3,184 | Little Falls NY | 4,481 | $54K | 24.3% | 7.6% | 18% | D |
| 3,185 | Pittsburg TX | 4,676 | $44K | 24.7% | 6.6% | 19% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,396 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Wayne, 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 Wayne: questions
What is the median household income in Wayne?
$53,702 (±$6,256) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wayne?
19.9%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wayne?
11 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wayne work?
51% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wakefield (6%, 8 mi), Norfolk (5%, 26 mi), Omaha (5%, 83 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wayne walkable?
Wayne is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wayne without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wayne, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wayne
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.