Photo: Neurosynthetic · CC BY-SA 4.0Making a living in Cheyenne
The average commute, 22 minutes each way, matches the Oklahoma norm. About one in five work in Cheyenne itself; outside it, Elk City draws the most (11%, 21 miles). There are 380 jobs in Cheyenne, and 222 of its residents work somewhere.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cheyenne fills up on a workday
On a workday 172 residents head out to work, 50 work right here, and 330 people come in from elsewhere.
About 880 people are in Cheyenne on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Who travels to work in Cheyenne, and from where
Where Cheyenne clocks in
7% 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.
What Cheyenne’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cheyenne, 2013 → 2023: 380 → 380. 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 Cheyenne’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cheyenne’s commute takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cheyenne workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 364 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.
The distance from Cheyenne to work
About 29% 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 Cheyenne: questions
What is the median household income in Cheyenne?
$59,545 (±$7,895) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cheyenne?
17.5%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cheyenne?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cheyenne work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Elk City (11%, 21 mi), Oklahoma City (7%, 122 mi), Hammon (6%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Cheyenne without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cheyenne, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cheyenne
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.