Perry Courthouse Square Historic District · Photo: Steven C. Price · CC BY-SA 3.0Perry has lower unemployment (1.4%) than 91% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Perry C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. About two in five work in Perry; the top destination outside it is Stillwater (12%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Perry, in brief
Perry makes and builds things
60% of the jobs based in Perry are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Perry residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Perry are quick
The average trip to work takes 14 minutes, against 22 across Oklahoma. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Oklahoma worker. Time on the road ↓
Perry gains people on a workday
About 5,300 people are in Perry on a workday afternoon, 20% more than the 4,400 who live here: 2,000 come in to work and 1,100 head out. 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.
Where Perry’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Perry is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #39 of 131 in Oklahoma. Unemployment holds Perry’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($53,587, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Perry could be anywhere from C− to B.
A place that makes things: 60% of Perry’s jobs are in goods
2,882 jobs are based in Perry.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Perry, 2013 → 2023: 2,681 → 2,882. 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 Perry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 14 minutes in Perry
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Perry workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,048 commuters (the 3% 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.
Who commutes out of Perry, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,127 residents head out to work, 876 work right here, and 2,006 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,300 people are in Perry on a workday afternoon, 20% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.44 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.
Where people from Perry work
Where Perry clocks in
12% of workers
9% of workers
3% 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.
How many miles Perry commutes
About 23% 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.
In Perry, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Perry is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns, #87 of 131 in Oklahoma. Both inputs place Perry 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 2,113 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). 3.0% of Perry households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Perry’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Perry is 2,618th of 4,000 U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Nichols Hills OK | 3,864 | $208K | 2.8% | 0.3% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 756 | Verdigris OK | 5,888 | $84K | 6.8% | 2.3% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 976 | Goldsby OK | 3,591 | $103K | 11.2% | 2.4% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,616 | Jefferson Township OH | 3,196 | $64K | 16.1% | 3.5% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,617 | North Kansas City MO | 5,613 | $50K | 9.1% | 9.5% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,618 | Perry OK | 4,448 | $54K | 13.1% | 1.4% | 44% | C+ |
| 2,619 | Kenedy TX | 3,305 | $61K | 16.3% | 0.5% | 13% | C+ |
| 2,620 | Boardman OR | 4,495 | $67K | 17.1% | 1.4% | 30% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | 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 Perry, 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 Perry: questions
What is the median household income in Perry?
$53,587 (±$10,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Perry?
13.1%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Perry?
14 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Perry work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stillwater (12%, 17 mi), Oklahoma City (9%, 57 mi), Enid (3%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Perry walkable?
Perry is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Perry without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Perry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Perry
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.