Kenyon College · Photo: .curt. · CC BY 2.0Gambier has higher household incomes than 71% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Gambier; the top destination outside it is Mount Vernon (19%, 5 miles). Below the poverty line: 21.5% of residents; Ohio has 13.3%. The two grades for Gambier are C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Gambier and work: the main findings
Gambier and Mount Vernon trade workers both ways
Mount Vernon is the top workplace for Gambier residents (19%) and also where the most people who work in Gambier come from (24% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Gambier is where the jobs are
Gambier has 849 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Gambier are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 23 across Ohio. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Ohio worker. 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; with 548 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Gambier
On income, poverty and job access, Gambier is better than 37% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Gambier’s grade up ($93,365, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Gambier’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Gambier could be anywhere from D to B+.
Where Gambier’s workers come from
Where Gambier clocks in
11% 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 many people are in Gambier by day
On a workday 475 residents head out to work, 73 work right here, and 776 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in Gambier on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Gambier
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gambier workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 775 commuters (the 11% 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.
In Gambier, services account for most jobs
849 jobs are based in Gambier.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gambier, 2013 → 2023: 804 → 849. 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 Gambier’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Gambier’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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.
Gambier is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gambier is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 59.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 870 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). 6.1% of Gambier households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gambier’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Gambier is 2,885th among 5,102 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | New California OH | 1,672 | $162K | 0.0% | 1.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Jersey Township OH | 2,678 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Silver Lake OH | 2,504 | $140K | 2.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,883 | North Beach MD | 2,179 | $84K | 5.1% | 17.1% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,884 | Hamilton MO | 1,726 | $65K | 6.0% | 2.8% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,885 | Gambier OH | 2,233 | $93K | 21.5% | 4.2% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,886 | South Fork Township IL | 2,452 | $76K | 12.2% | 5.4% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,887 | Dover Township MI | 1,645 | $74K | 8.3% | 6.6% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Gambier, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
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 Gambier: questions
What is the median household income in Gambier?
$93,365 (±$31,037) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gambier?
21.5%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gambier?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gambier work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mount Vernon (19%, 5 mi), Columbus (11%, 41 mi), Dublin (2%, 44 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gambier walkable?
Gambier is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 60% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gambier without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gambier, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gambier
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.