Lane Cabin · Photo: 25or6to4 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Beaver have lower incomes than those in 80% of U.S. towns
Beaver grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 18.2% of residents live below the poverty line, against 15.3% across Oklahoma. About one in three work in Beaver itself; outside it, Oklahoma City draws the most (7%, 192 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Beaver at work: what stands out
A big share show a job far from home
42% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Beaver are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 22 across Oklahoma. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Oklahoma worker. Time on the road ↓
Beaver makes and builds things
38% of the jobs based in Beaver are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Beaver residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. 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; with 626 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Beaver’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Beaver is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Beaver’s grade up ($56,078, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Beaver’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Beaver could be anywhere from D− to C.
Short hops and long hauls from Beaver
About 42% 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.
Each way, about 14 minutes from Beaver
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Beaver workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 657 commuters (the 6% 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.
Beaver works in goods: 38% of its jobs
547 jobs are based in Beaver.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Beaver, 2013 → 2023: 640 → 547. 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 Beaver’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Beaver: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 425 residents head out to work, 201 work right here, and 346 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 (0.87 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 Beaver goes to work
Where Beaver clocks in
7% 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.
For most of Beaver, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Beaver is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.5% across Oklahoma, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 698 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). 1.1% of Beaver households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Beaver’s commuters take a bus or train.
Beaver next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600: 3,861st of 4,312 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Forest Park OK | 1,035 | $104K | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 564 | Justice OK | 1,530 | $98K | 7.5% | 2.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 996 | Oologah OK | 1,358 | $80K | 9.4% | 7.6% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,859 | Itta Bena MS | 1,482 | $36K | 20.1% | 22.7% | 4% | D |
| 3,860 | Robersonville NC | 1,237 | $44K | 29.8% | 7.4% | 8% | D |
| 3,861 | Beaver OK | 1,213 | $56K | 18.2% | 0.9% | 32% | D |
| 3,862 | Vian OK | 1,386 | $41K | 24.2% | 9.2% | 5% | D |
| 3,863 | Milford Township IL | 1,437 | $54K | 18.8% | 2.6% | 11% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Beaver, the top three, the last and three more from Oklahoma.
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 Beaver: questions
What is the median household income in Beaver?
$56,078 (±$8,413) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Beaver?
18.2%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Beaver?
14 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Beaver work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oklahoma City (7%, 192 mi), Liberal (5%, 27 mi), Guymon (4%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Beaver walkable?
Beaver is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Beaver without a car?
<1% 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 Beaver, from the people who make the trip.
More of Beaver
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.