Photo: Chris Light · CC BY-SA 3.0Prairie Township has some of the lowest unemployment in the country, with hardly anyone out of work
About one in ten work in Prairie Township itself; outside it, Columbus draws the most (7%, 71 miles). Jobs and income earn Prairie Township B; getting around on foot earns it C+. A typical one-way commute lasts 24 minutes, where Ohio has 23 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Prairie Township, in brief
Prairie Township makes and builds things
69% of the jobs based in Prairie Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Prairie Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 43%. The jobs ↓
Prairie Township trades workers with the towns around it
Prairie Township has about as many jobs (1,127) as working residents (1,189), but they are mostly different people: 1,086 residents leave for work each day while 1,024 people come in. Only 9% of the jobs in Prairie Township are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
30% of Prairie Township’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.
How Prairie Township earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prairie Township is better than 57% of U.S. towns, #529 of 992 in Ohio. Unemployment holds Prairie Township’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prairie Township could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Prairie Township works in goods: 69% of its jobs
1,127 jobs are based in Prairie Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prairie Township, 2013 → 2023: 1,042 → 1,127. 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 Prairie Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Prairie Township on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,086 residents head out to work, 103 work right here, and 1,024 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 (0.95 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 Prairie Township’s working residents head each day
Where Prairie Township clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
Each way, about 24 minutes from Prairie Township
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prairie Township workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,107 commuters (the 12% 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 many miles Prairie Township commutes
About 23% 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.
Prairie Township is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prairie Township is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns, #566 of 993 in Ohio. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 3.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,255 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). 34.5% of Prairie Township households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Prairie Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Prairie Township ranks: 1,837th of 4,562 U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Jersey Township OH | 2,678 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Silver Lake OH | 2,504 | $140K | 2.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Evendale OH | 2,657 | $149K | 1.5% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,835 | Mohnton PA | 2,939 | $81K | 9.6% | 5.8% | 2% | B |
| 1,836 | Hounsfield NY | 3,174 | $83K | 7.2% | 3.3% | 11% | B |
| 1,837 | Prairie Township OH | 3,104 | $68K | 13.5% | 0.0% | 9% | B |
| 1,838 | Hanover Township OH | 3,384 | $68K | 7.9% | 2.8% | 4% | B |
| 1,839 | Naples ME | 4,128 | $78K | 9.5% | 0.9% | 13% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,562 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Prairie Township, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
13% of Prairie Township works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Hardy Township (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prairie Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Township | – | B | C+ | 24 min | $68,319 |
| Salt Creek Township | 5% | B+ | B | 18 min | $85,250 |
| Hardy Township | 6% | C+ | A− | 21 min | $63,102 |
| Ripley Township | under 3% | D | C+ | 30 min | $63,696 |
| Franklin Township | under 3% | B | C+ | 21 min | $71,384 |
| Monroe Township | 2% | B | D− | 23 min | $87,063 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prairie Township’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 Prairie Township: questions
What is the median household income in Prairie Township?
$68,319 (±$15,240) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prairie Township?
13.5%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prairie Township?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prairie Township work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbus (7%, 71 mi), Hardy Township (6%, 5 mi), Millersburg (6%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prairie Township walkable?
Prairie Township is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prairie Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 34% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prairie Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prairie Township
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.