Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Sallisaw has lower household incomes than 90% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Sallisaw is better than 14% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (A). Poverty touches 29.5% of residents; Oklahoma has 15.3%. About one in three work in Sallisaw itself; outside it, Fort Smith draws the most (9%, 26 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Sallisaw
A lot of Sallisaw workers cross into Arkansas
19% of Sallisaw workers work outside Oklahoma, most of them in Arkansas, the Census survey finds. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Sallisaw workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Sallisaw’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Sallisaw’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sallisaw is Fort Smith, AR, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (303) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Sallisaw’s grade explained
Unemployment holds Sallisaw’s grade up (4.8%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sallisaw could be anywhere from D to C−.
The places Sallisaw commutes to
Where Sallisaw clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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.
The kinds of work in Sallisaw
4,303 jobs are based in Sallisaw.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sallisaw, 2013 → 2023: 5,082 → 4,303. 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 Sallisaw’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Sallisaw
About 30% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Sallisaw
On a workday 2,283 residents head out to work, 1,147 work right here, and 3,156 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,700 people are in Sallisaw on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 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.
Commuting from Sallisaw: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sallisaw workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,081 commuters (the 5% 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 Sallisaw, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,242 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). 10.2% of Sallisaw households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Sallisaw’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900, and where Sallisaw sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 477 | Piedmont OK | 9,427 | $104K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 918 | Tuttle OK | 8,708 | $104K | 5.3% | 4.8% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,020 | Noble OK | 7,748 | $82K | 10.8% | 1.2% | 10% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,620 | Albion NY | 7,546 | $50K | 17.7% | 6.9% | 19% | D |
| 2,621 | Hillsboro OH | 6,763 | $56K | 21.7% | 5.3% | 26% | D |
| 2,622 | Sallisaw OK | 8,790 | $48K | 29.5% | 4.8% | 33% | D |
| 2,623 | Milton-Freewater OR | 7,029 | $52K | 12.6% | 7.3% | 19% | D |
| 2,624 | Independence Township MO | 11,792 | $56K | 18.4% | 5.3% | 37% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Sallisaw, the top three, the last and three more from Oklahoma.
Sallisaw and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sallisaw workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sallisaw | – | D | A | 19 min | $48,036 |
| Badger Lee | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Badger Lee: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sallisaw’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Sallisaw: questions
What is the median household income in Sallisaw?
$48,036 (±$5,941) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sallisaw?
29.5%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sallisaw?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sallisaw work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fort Smith (9%, 26 mi), Tulsa (5%, 77 mi), Oklahoma City (4%, 152 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sallisaw walkable?
Sallisaw is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sallisaw without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sallisaw, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sallisaw
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.