Photo: OKJaguar · CC BY-SA 4.0Perkins’ household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 32.0% of residents; Oklahoma has 15.3%. Jobs and income earn Perkins D; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in ten stay in Perkins for work; outside it, Stillwater is the main destination (32%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Perkins: the gist
Perkins and Stillwater trade workers both ways
Stillwater is the top workplace for Perkins residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Perkins come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Perkins has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Perkins went from 679 in 2013 to 996 in 2023, +47%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Perkins’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Perkins is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #97 of 131 in Oklahoma. Unemployment holds Perkins’ grade up (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($35,456, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Perkins could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Commuting out of Perkins: the destinations
Where Perkins clocks in
32% of workers
13% 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.
In Perkins, services account for most jobs
996 jobs are based in Perkins.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Perkins, 2013 → 2023: 679 → 996. 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 Perkins’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Perkins quiets down on a workday
On a workday 1,296 residents head out to work, 164 work right here, and 832 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,800 people are in Perkins on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.68 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.
Getting to work from Perkins takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Perkins workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,061 commuters (the 17% 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.
Half of Perkins commutes less than 11 miles
About 22% 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.
Most of Perkins commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Perkins is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #48 of 131 in Oklahoma. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.5% across Oklahoma, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,277 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). 11.5% of Perkins households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Perkins’ commuters take a bus or train.
Perkins is 3,972nd of 4,453 U.S. towns of 2,300 to 4,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Nichols Hills OK | 3,864 | $208K | 2.8% | 0.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 953 | Goldsby OK | 3,591 | $103K | 11.2% | 2.4% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,293 | Kiefer OK | 2,310 | $83K | 10.4% | 3.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,970 | Windsor MO | 2,869 | $50K | 24.2% | 4.7% | 26% | D |
| 3,971 | Gamewell NC | 3,713 | $47K | 21.5% | 5.7% | 2% | D |
| 3,972 | Perkins OK | 3,271 | $35K | 32.0% | 4.2% | 11% | D |
| 3,973 | Gunnison UT | 3,693 | $71K | 20.9% | 4.1% | 25% | D |
| 3,974 | Granger WA | 3,831 | $66K | 23.3% | 15.8% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,453 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Perkins, 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 Perkins: questions
What is the median household income in Perkins?
$35,456 (±$5,272) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Perkins?
32.0%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Perkins?
22 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Perkins work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stillwater (32%, 11 mi), Oklahoma City (13%, 45 mi), Tulsa (6%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Perkins walkable?
Perkins is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 20% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Perkins without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Perkins, from the people who make the trip.
More of Perkins
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.