Photo: Doug Kerr from Upstate New York · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Oxford are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns
Oxford grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 14.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 14.0% across New York. For 7% of workers, the job is at home (New York 15%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Oxford at work: what stands out
What’s behind Oxford’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Oxford is better than 13% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Oxford’s grade.
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Oxford’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, Oxford could be anywhere from D− to C+.
About 24 minutes to work from Oxford
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 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 532 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across New York: 57% drive alone, 25% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Oxford on a workday afternoon
On a workday 486 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 359 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Oxford on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 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.
17% of working residents work in Norwich
Where Oxford clocks in
9% 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.
The 387 jobs based in Oxford
387 jobs are based in Oxford.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oxford, 2013 → 2023: 403 → 387. 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 in the region Oxford works
About 24% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Oxford
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oxford is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 573 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). 5.2% of Oxford households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oxford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Oxford comes 4,214th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| 4 | Saddle Rock NY | 1,008 | $176K | 0.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,212 | Lincolnton GA | 1,433 | $44K | 12.4% | 1.7% | 15% | D |
| 4,213 | Cave Spring GA | 1,228 | $51K | 12.6% | 1.3% | 3% | D |
| 4,214 | Oxford NY | 1,322 | $56K | 14.6% | 5.1% | 5% | D |
| 4,215 | Riddle OR | 1,218 | $67K | 19.0% | 6.1% | 6% | D |
| 4,216 | Iola WI | 1,210 | $45K | 13.7% | 4.2% | 12% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Oxford, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
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 Oxford: questions
What is the median household income in Oxford?
$56,250 (±$11,193) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oxford?
14.6%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oxford?
24 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oxford work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Norwich (17%, 7 mi), Greene (9%, 12 mi), Norwich (7%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oxford walkable?
Oxford is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oxford 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 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.