The Plains has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income The Plains is better than 25% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (A−). Below the poverty line: 19.0% of residents; Ohio has 13.3%. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 4.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 11.7 in Cleveland.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets The Plains apart on work
39% of The Plains works in Athens
431 working residents, 39%, have their main job in Athens, 3.2 miles away. That’s 10 times as many as work in The Plains itself. The commute map ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of The Plains’ working residents have a job less than 8 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 26 minutes, longer than the Ohio average of 23. 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.
Where The Plains’ Jobs & income grade comes from
Unemployment holds The Plains’ grade up (4.1%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, The Plains could be anywhere from D to B.
39% of working residents work in Athens
Where The Plains clocks in
39% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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.
A commute of about 26 minutes in The Plains
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of The Plains workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 945 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.
The Plains by day and by night
On a workday 1,059 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 856 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 (0.82 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in The Plains
903 jobs are based in The Plains.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in The Plains, 2013 → 2023: 765 → 903. 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 The Plains’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of The Plains commutes less than 8 miles
About 28% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: The Plains
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.9% 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 1,036 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 95% 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 4.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 80% 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). 9.1% of The Plains households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of The Plains’ commuters take a bus or train.
The Plains is 3,601st of 4,969 U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Jersey Township OH | 2,678 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Silver Lake OH | 2,504 | $140K | 2.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Evendale OH | 2,657 | $149K | 1.5% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,599 | Weymouth Township NJ | 2,751 | $72K | 16.7% | 8.5% | 3% | C |
| 3,600 | Lake Luzerne NY | 3,067 | $47K | 33.4% | 1.3% | 11% | C |
| 3,601 | The Plains OH | 2,748 | $60K | 19.0% | 4.1% | 4% | C |
| 3,602 | Fremont IN | 2,058 | $66K | 9.4% | 11.4% | 17% | C |
| 3,603 | Springfield KY | 3,033 | $49K | 10.3% | 5.5% | 27% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 The Plains, 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 The Plains: questions
What is the median household income in The Plains?
$59,688 (±$13,694) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in The Plains?
19.0%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from The Plains?
26 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in The Plains work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Athens (39%, 3 mi), Columbus (6%, 62 mi), Nelsonville (3%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is The Plains walkable?
The Plains is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 14.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around The Plains without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from The Plains, from the people who make the trip.
More of The Plains
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.