Ames has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Hardly any stay in Ames for work; outside it, Enid is the main destination (15%, 21 miles). Ames has 19 jobs, against 88 working residents. Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers; Oklahoma has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who works in Ames, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 88 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 19 people come in from elsewhere.
About 120 people are in Ames on a workday afternoon, 37% fewer than live here.
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 people from Ames work
Where Ames clocks in
15% of workers
9% 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.
Jobs in Ames: what the 19 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ames, 2013 → 2023: 310 → 19. 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 Ames’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Ames spends getting to work: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ames workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 134 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Oklahoma: 85% 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.
Miles to work from Ames
About 51% 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.
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 Ames: questions
What is the median household income in Ames?
$49,231 (±$10,278) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ames?
16.4%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ames?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ames work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Enid (15%, 21 mi), Oklahoma City (9%, 66 mi), Edmond (6%, 59 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Ames without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ames, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ames
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.