About two in three of Forest Park’s working residents commute to Oklahoma City
Only 1% stay in Forest Park for work; outside it, Oklahoma City is the main destination (68%, 5 miles). Jobs and income earn Forest Park A+; getting around on foot earns it C−. Measured by household income, Forest Park is ahead of 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Forest Park, in brief
More than half of Forest Park works in Oklahoma City
276 working residents, 68%, have their main job in Oklahoma City, 4.8 miles away. That’s 68 times as many as work in Forest Park itself. The commute map ↓
Most Forest Park residents work close to home
65% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Forest Park is a place people come home to
There are 107 jobs based in Forest Park, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Forest Park has about 740 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 407 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Forest Park’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Forest Park is better than 98% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (0.4%, U.S. 12.5%); household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($103,929, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.0%) is left out: Forest Park’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, Forest Park could be anywhere from A to A+.
The towns that employ Forest Park’s residents
Where Forest Park clocks in
68% 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 distance from Forest Park to work
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.
Who leaves Forest Park for work, and who comes in
On a workday 402 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 102 people come in from elsewhere.
About 740 people are in Forest Park on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.26 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Forest Park
107 jobs are based in Forest Park.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Park, 2013 → 2023: 119 → 107. 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 Forest Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes to work from Forest Park
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Park workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 333 commuters (the 14% 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.
For most of Forest Park, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Forest Park is more walkable than 21% 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 386 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 3.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 75% 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). 2.9% of Forest Park households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forest Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Forest Park comes 37th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Sharon Center OH | 1,129 | $111K | 0.4% | 0.2% | 2% | A+ |
| 36 | Randolph AFB TX | 1,240 | $113K | 2.8% | 3.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 37 | Forest Park OK | 1,035 | $104K | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| 38 | Marshan Township MN | 1,112 | $120K | 1.3% | 0.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 39 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | 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− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,303 | Dickson OK | 1,363 | $81K | 11.1% | 1.2% | 2% | 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 Forest Park, 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 Forest Park: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Park?
$103,929 (±$23,172) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Park?
0.4%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Park?
25 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Park work?
1% work in town.
Is Forest Park walkable?
Forest Park is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Park without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Park
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.