Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Households in Checotah have lower incomes than those in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in five stay in Checotah for work; outside it, Muskogee is the main destination (13%, 20 miles). The poverty rate is 18.8%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma. Checotah grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Checotah, in a few figures
The figures behind Checotah’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Checotah is better than 5% of U.S. towns, #115 of 131 in Oklahoma. Job access by car holds Checotah’s grade up (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($37,042, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Checotah could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The 1,515 jobs based in Checotah
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Checotah, 2013 → 2023: 1,665 → 1,515. 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 Checotah’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Checotah by day
On a workday 938 residents head out to work, 220 work right here, and 1,295 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Checotah on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.31 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 the trip to work from Checotah ends
Where Checotah clocks in
13% of workers
11% 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 18 minutes from Checotah
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Checotah workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,085 commuters (the 9% 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.
The commute from Checotah, by distance
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.
For most of Checotah, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Checotah is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns, #38 of 131 in Oklahoma. Both inputs place Checotah near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,186 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). 8.1% of Checotah households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Checotah’s commuters take a bus or train.
Checotah next to 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Nichols Hills OK | 3,864 | $208K | 2.8% | 0.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 954 | Goldsby OK | 3,591 | $103K | 11.2% | 2.4% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,288 | Kiefer OK | 2,310 | $83K | 10.4% | 3.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,295 | Newton MS | 3,040 | $32K | 29.4% | 6.6% | 23% | D |
| 4,296 | Okolona MS | 2,394 | $26K | 43.2% | 13.8% | 14% | D |
| 4,297 | Checotah OK | 3,096 | $37K | 18.8% | 7.4% | 19% | D |
| 4,298 | Hohenwald TN | 4,151 | $51K | 20.4% | 8.0% | 30% | D |
| 4,299 | Harrison ME | 2,639 | $57K | 19.1% | 8.0% | 8% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Checotah, 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 Checotah: questions
What is the median household income in Checotah?
$37,042 (±$3,452) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Checotah?
18.8%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Checotah?
18 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Checotah work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Muskogee (13%, 20 mi), Tulsa (11%, 49 mi), Eufaula (6%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Checotah walkable?
Checotah is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Checotah without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Checotah, from the people who make the trip.
More of Checotah
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.