Pawnee Agency and Boarding School Historic District · Photo: Steven C. Price · CC BY-SA 3.0Pawnee’s household incomes are lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 14.9% of residents, where Oklahoma as a whole has 15.3%. The two grades for Pawnee are D for jobs and income and B for walkability. 1% of workers have no commute at all, where Oklahoma as a whole has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Pawnee apart on work
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 ↓
Nearly all the work in Pawnee is services
86% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 7% are in factories, building or farms. 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 935 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Pawnee’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Pawnee is better than 6% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Pawnee’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($41,471, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Pawnee’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, Pawnee could be anywhere from D− to D.
Where in the region Pawnee works
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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Pawnee
1,012 jobs are based in Pawnee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pawnee, 2013 → 2023: 1,052 → 1,012. 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 Pawnee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Pawnee, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 607 residents head out to work, 328 work right here, and 684 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 (1.08 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.
The towns that employ Pawnee’s residents
Where Pawnee clocks in
9% of workers
8% of workers
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.
Pawnee’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pawnee workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 696 commuters (the 1% 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.
In Pawnee, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pawnee is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Pawnee 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 706 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). 8.5% of Pawnee households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pawnee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pawnee and other U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 955 | Justice OK | 1,530 | $98K | 7.5% | 2.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,251 | Kiefer OK | 2,310 | $83K | 10.4% | 3.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,252 | Union City OK | 2,129 | $106K | 11.5% | 2.9% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,974 | Mount Vernon KY | 2,455 | $39K | 32.7% | 3.5% | 25% | D |
| 4,975 | Kimberling City MO | 2,345 | $50K | 19.5% | 7.0% | 5% | D |
| 4,976 | Pawnee OK | 1,974 | $41K | 14.9% | 2.8% | 35% | D |
| 4,977 | Wheeler TX | 1,431 | $56K | 18.0% | 4.3% | 27% | D |
| 4,978 | Stuart VA | 1,409 | $46K | 20.1% | 6.1% | 19% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Pawnee, 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 Pawnee: questions
What is the median household income in Pawnee?
$41,471 (±$4,816) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pawnee?
14.9%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pawnee?
18 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pawnee work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stillwater (9%, 22 mi), Oklahoma City (8%, 73 mi), Tulsa (7%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pawnee walkable?
Pawnee is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pawnee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pawnee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pawnee
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.