Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Buffalo has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Buffalo has 189 jobs for 449 working residents. Jobs and income earn Buffalo C+; getting around on foot earns it C−. Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers (Oklahoma 9%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Buffalo apart on work
Buffalo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Buffalo is Oklahoma City, 151 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (49) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
52% 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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Buffalo than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Buffalo fell from 479 in 2013 to 189 in 2023, −61%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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 449 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Buffalo’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Buffalo is better than 39% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Buffalo’s grade up (5.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Buffalo’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, Buffalo could be anywhere from C− to B.
How many miles Buffalo commutes
About 52% 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.
The kinds of work in Buffalo
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Buffalo, 2013 → 2023: 479 → 189. 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 Buffalo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Buffalo by day and by night
On a workday 362 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 102 people come in from elsewhere.
About 740 people are in Buffalo on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
11% of working residents work in Oklahoma City
Where Buffalo clocks in
11% 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.
Buffalo’s commute takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Buffalo workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 527 commuters (the 1% 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.
In Buffalo, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Buffalo is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.5% across Oklahoma.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 532 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). 4.3% of Buffalo households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Buffalo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Buffalo ranks 1,404th of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Forest Park OK | 1,035 | $104K | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 692 | Oologah OK | 1,358 | $80K | 9.4% | 7.6% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 929 | Okarche OK | 1,196 | $94K | 11.8% | 0.8% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,402 | Quincy CA | 1,317 | $89K | 9.2% | 14.1% | 25% | C+ |
| 1,403 | Manning IA | 1,375 | $73K | 7.4% | 0.7% | 25% | C+ |
| 1,404 | Buffalo OK | 1,002 | $72K | 5.0% | 1.5% | 19% | C+ |
| 1,405 | Elizabeth PA | 1,343 | $51K | 13.0% | 3.9% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,406 | Hazel Green WI | 1,173 | $65K | 10.6% | 0.6% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Buffalo, 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 Buffalo: questions
What is the median household income in Buffalo?
$72,065 (±$11,717) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Buffalo?
5.0%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Buffalo?
17 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Buffalo work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oklahoma City (11%, 151 mi), Woodward (6%, 31 mi), Wichita (3%, 139 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Buffalo walkable?
Buffalo is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Buffalo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Buffalo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Buffalo
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.