Photo: Caleb Long · CC BY-SA 2.5Households in Wagoner earn less than those in 77% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 16.1% of residents, next to 15.3% for Oklahoma as a whole. For jobs and income Wagoner is better than 24% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (B−). About one in five stay in Wagoner for work; outside it, Tulsa is the main destination (22%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Wagoner, in a few figures
Wagoner trades workers with the towns around it
Wagoner has about as many jobs (2,639) as working residents (2,999), but they are mostly different people: 2,376 residents leave for work each day while 2,016 people come in. Only 24% of the jobs in Wagoner are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Wagoner’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Wagoner is Tulsa, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (648) 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.
Wagoner’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Wagoner’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($57,917, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wagoner could be anywhere from D to B−.
How a workday changes Wagoner
On a workday 2,376 residents head out to work, 623 work right here, and 2,016 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 (0.88 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.
How far Wagoner goes to work
About 15% 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.
Where Wagoner’s working residents head each day
Where Wagoner clocks in
22% of workers
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.
Inside Wagoner’s 2,639 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wagoner, 2013 → 2023: 2,564 → 2,639. 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 Wagoner’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, longer than most of Oklahoma
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wagoner workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,269 commuters (the 6% 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 Wagoner, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,494 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). 9.0% of Wagoner households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Wagoner’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Wagoner is 2,428th of 2,947 U.S. towns of 5,900 to 11,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 470 | Piedmont OK | 9,427 | $104K | 2.6% | 3.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 910 | Tuttle OK | 8,708 | $104K | 5.3% | 4.8% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,021 | Noble OK | 7,748 | $82K | 10.8% | 1.2% | 10% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,426 | Sugar Creek Township IN | 7,177 | $56K | 14.5% | 5.5% | 6% | C− |
| 2,427 | Presque Isle ME | 8,694 | $56K | 15.5% | 3.6% | 56% | C− |
| 2,428 | Wagoner OK | 8,405 | $58K | 16.1% | 6.1% | 21% | C− |
| 2,429 | Harter Township IL | 5,912 | $53K | 16.2% | 3.4% | 22% | C− |
| 2,430 | Scottsburg IN | 7,478 | $39K | 23.4% | 4.2% | 22% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,947 | 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 Wagoner, 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 Wagoner: questions
What is the median household income in Wagoner?
$57,917 (±$8,618) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wagoner?
16.1%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wagoner?
26 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wagoner work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tulsa (22%, 31 mi), Muskogee (12%, 15 mi), Oklahoma City (6%, 125 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wagoner walkable?
Wagoner is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wagoner without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wagoner, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wagoner
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.