Photo: TulGuy · CC BY 4.0Locust Grove has lower household incomes than 89% of U.S. towns
Locust Grove grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability. 18.1% of residents are in poverty, next to 15.3% for Oklahoma as a whole. About one in seven work in Locust Grove itself; outside it, Tulsa draws the most (16%, 41 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Locust Grove stands out on work
Locust Grove’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Locust Grove is Tulsa, 41 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (73) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
32% of the jobs based in Locust Grove are held by workers 29 or younger, against 28% of Locust Grove’s own working residents. 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 462 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Locust Grove
On income, poverty and job access, Locust Grove is better than 8% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Locust Grove’s grade.
Unemployment (3.5%) is left out: Locust Grove’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, Locust Grove could be anywhere from D to C−.
How far Locust Grove’s workers travel
About 19% 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.
Inside Locust Grove’s 462 jobs
462 jobs are based in Locust Grove.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Locust Grove, 2013 → 2023: 603 → 462. 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 Locust Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Locust Grove
On a workday 404 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 404 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.00 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.
Out of Locust Grove to work: where people go
Where Locust Grove clocks in
16% of workers
8% of workers
5% 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.
About 22 minutes each way for Locust Grove’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Locust Grove workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 609 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Locust Grove
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Locust Grove is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Locust Grove 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 670 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). 11.1% of Locust Grove households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Locust Grove’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Locust Grove comes 4,986th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Forest Park OK | 1,035 | $104K | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 812 | Justice OK | 1,530 | $98K | 7.5% | 2.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,417 | Oologah OK | 1,358 | $80K | 9.4% | 7.6% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,984 | Ellendale ND | 1,129 | $55K | 13.2% | 5.4% | 39% | D |
| 4,985 | Boise City OK | 1,040 | $43K | 10.4% | 0.0% | 0% | D |
| 4,986 | Locust Grove OK | 1,397 | $49K | 18.1% | 3.5% | 13% | D |
| 4,987 | Ritzville WA | 1,709 | $56K | 14.0% | 2.8% | 32% | D |
| 4,988 | Guilford ME | 1,285 | $53K | 14.9% | 3.5% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Locust Grove, 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 Locust Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Locust Grove?
$49,398 (±$3,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Locust Grove?
18.1%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Locust Grove?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Locust Grove work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tulsa (16%, 41 mi), Pryor Creek (8%, 11 mi), Broken Arrow (5%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Locust Grove walkable?
Locust Grove is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Locust Grove without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Locust Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Locust Grove
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.