Drexel has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
15.7% of residents live below the poverty line, where Ohio as a whole has 13.3%. Measured by household income, Drexel is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. For jobs and income Drexel is better than 30% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Drexel, in brief
Inside Drexel’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Drexel’s grade up (ahead of 81% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($32,094, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (16.8%) is left out: Drexel’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, Drexel could be anywhere from C− to B−.
What work there is in Drexel: 290 jobs
290 jobs are based in Drexel.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Drexel, 2013 → 2023: 246 → 290. 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 Drexel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Drexel
On a workday 518 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 277 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Drexel on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.55 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
18% of working residents work in Dayton
Where Drexel clocks in
18% of workers
4% of workers
4% 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.
About 19 minutes each way, quicker than most of Ohio
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Drexel workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 372 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Ohio: 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 Drexel’s workers travel
About 17% 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.
In Drexel, walking beats the bus
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.7% across Ohio.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 426 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 1% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 5.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 85% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 17.3% of Drexel households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Drexel’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Drexel ranks: 3,658th of 6,085 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | New California OH | 1,672 | $162K | 0.0% | 1.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Millcreek Township OH | 1,562 | $151K | 2.3% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Bratenahl OH | 1,396 | $138K | 4.4% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,656 | Michigan Township IN | 1,567 | $51K | 9.1% | 3.7% | 5% | C |
| 3,657 | Le Roy Township MI | 1,291 | $68K | 7.9% | 14.8% | 10% | C |
| 3,658 | Drexel OH | 1,751 | $32K | 15.7% | 16.8% | 2% | C |
| 3,659 | Priest River ID | 1,851 | $59K | 5.0% | 1.9% | 10% | C |
| 3,660 | Carbon Cliff IL | 1,810 | $56K | 19.1% | 4.9% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Drexel, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
Drexel and its neighbors: 18% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Dayton. Darker towns draw more of Drexel’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Drexel: questions
What is the median household income in Drexel?
$32,094 (±$18,208) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Drexel?
15.7%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Drexel?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Drexel work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dayton (18%, 6 mi), Columbus (4%, 71 mi), Moraine (4%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Drexel walkable?
Drexel is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Drexel without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. 1% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Drexel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Drexel
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.