Photo: OKJaguar · CC BY-SA 4.0Fairfax’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
24.7% of residents live below the poverty line, against 15.3% across Oklahoma. Fairfax grades D− for jobs and income and C for walkability. Only 7% work in Fairfax itself; outside it, Ponca City draws the most (25%, 22 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Fairfax and work: the main findings
Fairfax’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Fairfax is Ponca City, 22 miles away as the crow flies. 25% of working residents (111) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 ↓
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 439 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Fairfax
On income, poverty and job access, Fairfax is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Fairfax’s grade.
Unemployment (14.8%) is left out: Fairfax’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Fairfax stays D−.
How far Fairfax’s workers travel
About 32% 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.
Fairfax on a workday afternoon
On a workday 409 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 231 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Fairfax on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.59 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
The places Fairfax commutes to
Where Fairfax clocks in
25% of workers
10% 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.
The kinds of work in Fairfax
261 jobs are based in Fairfax.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairfax, 2013 → 2023: 230 → 261. 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 Fairfax’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Fairfax
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairfax workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 368 commuters (the 2% 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.
Fairfax is a driving town
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 377 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.4% of Fairfax households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fairfax’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fairfax and other U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Forest Park OK | 1,035 | $104K | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 856 | Oologah OK | 1,358 | $80K | 9.4% | 7.6% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,140 | Okarche OK | 1,196 | $94K | 11.8% | 0.8% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,707 | Mount Ida AR | 1,005 | $37K | 32.6% | 6.7% | 20% | D− |
| 3,708 | Lambert MS | 1,095 | $22K | 26.0% | 6.2% | 1% | D− |
| 3,709 | Fairfax OK | 1,106 | $40K | 24.7% | 14.8% | 7% | D− |
| 3,710 | Westfield PA | 1,075 | $40K | 26.1% | 4.1% | 9% | D− |
| 3,711 | Red Boiling Springs TN | 1,201 | $40K | 37.5% | 9.9% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Fairfax, 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 Fairfax: questions
What is the median household income in Fairfax?
$40,000 (±$12,591) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairfax?
24.7%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairfax?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairfax work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ponca City (25%, 22 mi), Oklahoma City (10%, 88 mi), Tulsa (6%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairfax walkable?
Fairfax is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairfax without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairfax, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairfax
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.