Creek National Capitol · Photo: Rdlogan05 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Okmulgee have lower incomes than those in 95% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Okmulgee itself; outside it, Tulsa draws the most (19%, 35 miles). Poverty touches 20.6% of residents, next to 15.3% for Oklahoma as a whole. The two grades for Okmulgee are 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
Okmulgee at work: what stands out
Okmulgee trades workers with the towns around it
Okmulgee has about as many jobs (3,829) as working residents (4,065), but they are mostly different people: 3,090 residents leave for work each day while 2,854 people come in. Only 25% of the jobs in Okmulgee are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Okmulgee’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Okmulgee is Tulsa, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (781) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Okmulgee workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Okmulgee’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Okmulgee are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 22 across Oklahoma. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Oklahoma worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Why Okmulgee gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Okmulgee is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #107 of 131 in Oklahoma. Job access by car holds Okmulgee’s grade up (ahead of 39% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($41,848, U.S. $80,734).
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Okmulgee stays D.
Who commutes out of Okmulgee, and who commutes in
On a workday 3,090 residents head out to work, 975 work right here, and 2,854 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 (0.94 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.
Half of Okmulgee commutes less than 30 miles
About 21% 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 Okmulgee’s 3,829 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Okmulgee, 2013 → 2023: 3,756 → 3,829. 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 Okmulgee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Okmulgee: about 17 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Okmulgee workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,950 commuters (the 4% 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.
Where the trip to work from Okmulgee ends
Where Okmulgee clocks in
19% of workers
4% 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.
Driving is how Okmulgee gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Okmulgee is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns, #68 of 131 in Oklahoma. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% of 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 4,118 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). 13.8% of Okmulgee households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Okmulgee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Okmulgee and other U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 440 | Piedmont OK | 9,427 | $104K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 652 | Choctaw OK | 12,549 | $101K | 6.3% | 3.1% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 860 | Tuttle OK | 8,708 | $104K | 5.3% | 4.8% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,409 | Peru IN | 10,962 | $46K | 23.6% | 9.1% | 25% | D |
| 2,410 | Cushing OK | 8,390 | $44K | 22.0% | 5.6% | 24% | D |
| 2,411 | Okmulgee OK | 11,394 | $42K | 20.6% | 8.2% | 24% | D |
| 2,412 | Pulaski TN | 8,394 | $49K | 25.7% | 7.2% | 34% | D |
| 2,413 | Covington TN | 8,585 | $42K | 29.2% | 8.8% | 31% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Okmulgee, 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 Okmulgee: questions
What is the median household income in Okmulgee?
$41,848 (±$4,868) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Okmulgee?
20.6%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Okmulgee?
17 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Okmulgee work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tulsa (19%, 35 mi), Preston (5%, 6 mi), Oklahoma City (4%, 88 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Okmulgee walkable?
Okmulgee is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Okmulgee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Okmulgee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Okmulgee
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.