Photo: Fletcherspears · CC BY-SA 3.038% of Stillwater’s residents are college students
Jobs and income earn Stillwater C; getting around on foot earns it A. About half work in Stillwater; the top destination outside it is Oklahoma City (12%, 52 miles). Commuters spend 15 minutes getting to work on average; the Oklahoma average is 22, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Stillwater stands out on work
Stillwater’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Stillwater is Oklahoma City, 52 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (2,161) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Stillwater are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 22 across Oklahoma. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Oklahoma worker. Time on the road ↓
A young workforce
33% of Stillwater’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
33% 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 ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Stillwater
On family income, poverty and job access, Stillwater is better than 31% of U.S. towns, #49 of 131 in Oklahoma. Job access by car holds Stillwater’s grade up (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.9%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (26% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 14.9%, against 27.4% for all residents. Unemployment (6.4%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($82,321), since student households pull the household median down ($43,700).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Stillwater could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Stillwater
About 33% 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.
Getting to work from Stillwater takes about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stillwater workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 21,009 commuters (the 10% 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.
Most jobs in Stillwater are in services
25,984 jobs are based in Stillwater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stillwater, 2013 → 2023: 21,405 → 25,984. 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 Stillwater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Stillwater, and who commutes in
On a workday 9,521 residents head out to work, 8,818 work right here, and 17,166 people come in from elsewhere.
About 58,000 people are in Stillwater on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.42 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 Stillwater’s working residents head each day
Where Stillwater clocks in
12% 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 Stillwater, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stillwater is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #2 of 131 in Oklahoma. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.5% across Oklahoma, on an EPA index of 8.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 23,256 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). 6.8% of Stillwater households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Stillwater’s commuters take a bus or train.
Stillwater next to U.S. towns of 35,000 to 68,000: 775th of 904 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| 3 | Oakton VA | 36,528 | $161K | 4.6% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 511 | Owasso OK | 43,117 | $79K | 7.3% | 5.4% | 14% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 528 | Moore OK | 63,609 | $80K | 11.4% | 4.7% | 11% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 773 | Waterloo IA | 66,919 | $57K | 16.6% | 5.3% | 53% | C |
| 774 | New Albany IN | 37,463 | $55K | 18.9% | 6.0% | 23% | C |
| 775 | Stillwater OK | 50,046 | $44K | 27.4% | 6.4% | 48% | C |
| 776 | Mount Vernon WA | 35,193 | $76K | 16.1% | 6.0% | 22% | C |
| 777 | Hanford CA | 62,229 | $76K | 14.5% | 9.5% | 26% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 784 | Midwest City OK | 58,799 | $58K | 16.5% | 7.1% | 12% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 904 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Stillwater, 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.
- Students. 38% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Stillwater: questions
What is the median household income in Stillwater?
$43,700 (±$4,049) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stillwater?
27.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 14.9%. Oklahoma: 15.3%.
How long is the commute from Stillwater?
15 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stillwater work?
48% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oklahoma City (12%, 52 mi), Tulsa (6%, 65 mi), Perry (2%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stillwater walkable?
Stillwater is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stillwater without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Stillwater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stillwater
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.