Fairborn Theatre · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainFairborn’s household incomes are lower than in 71% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 13.7% of residents, where Ohio as a whole has 13.3%. For jobs and income Fairborn is better than 49% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in ten stay in Fairborn for work; outside it, Dayton is the main destination (13%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Fairborn stands out on work
The four measures behind Fairborn’s grade
Job access by car holds Fairborn’s grade up (ahead of 81% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($61,751, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fairborn could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Jobs in Fairborn: what the 11,020 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairborn, 2013 → 2023: 9,058 → 11,020. 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 Fairborn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 12,572 residents head out to work, 1,295 work right here, and 9,725 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 (0.79 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 Fairborn’s working residents head each day
Where Fairborn clocks in
13% of workers
10% 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.
From Fairborn, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairborn workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 16,665 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where in the region Fairborn works
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.
Getting around Fairborn: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 18,377 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 11% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% 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). 5.5% of Fairborn households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Fairborn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fairborn places 870th of 1,219 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 25,000 to 48,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Liberty Township OH | 40,625 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.5% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Genoa Township OH | 27,720 | $177K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 868 | Wood River Township IL | 29,456 | $62K | 14.2% | 3.9% | 17% | B− |
| 869 | Dickinson ND | 25,870 | $83K | 13.6% | 3.2% | 52% | B− |
| 870 | Fairborn OH | 35,754 | $62K | 13.7% | 3.9% | 9% | B− |
| 871 | Mason City IA | 26,853 | $65K | 12.0% | 2.8% | 56% | B− |
| 872 | Pearl MS | 28,864 | $62K | 12.2% | 4.3% | 14% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,219 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Fairborn, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
The towns next door employ 10% of Fairborn
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fairborn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairborn | – | B− | B+ | 21 min | $61,751 |
| Wright-Patterson AFB | under 2% | A− | A | 13 min | $89,615 |
| Beavercreek | 10% | A− | C+ | 20 min | $110,088 |
| Bath Township | under 2% | B− | A− | 21 min | $62,856 |
| Beavercreek Township | under 2% | A | C+ | 21 min | $116,743 |
| Xenia Township | under 2% | B+ | B+ | 21 min | $95,313 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Beavercreek. Darker towns draw more of Fairborn’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 Fairborn: questions
What is the median household income in Fairborn?
$61,751 (±$5,739) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairborn?
13.7%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairborn?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairborn work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dayton (13%, 10 mi), Beavercreek (10%, 5 mi), Kettering (5%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairborn walkable?
Fairborn is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairborn without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairborn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairborn
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.