Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Abbeville ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 21.7% of residents are in poverty (Alabama 15.6%). Abbeville grades D− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Abbeville stands out on work
Inside Abbeville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Abbeville is better than 4% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Abbeville’s grade up (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,712, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (6.4%) is left out: Abbeville’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Abbeville could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far Abbeville’s workers travel
About 26% 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.
Abbeville on a workday afternoon
On a workday 745 residents head out to work, 209 work right here, and 1,196 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,800 people are in Abbeville on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 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.
18% of working residents work in Dothan
Where Abbeville clocks in
18% of workers
4% 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 Abbeville
1,405 jobs are based in Abbeville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Abbeville, 2013 → 2023: 1,560 → 1,405. 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 Abbeville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Abbeville
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Abbeville workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 828 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Alabama: 88% 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 Abbeville, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Abbeville is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Abbeville 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 853 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). 23.3% of Abbeville households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Abbeville’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Abbeville compares with U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 75 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Eagle Point AL | 3,110 | $152K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 395 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,710 | Clinton Township OH | 1,804 | $47K | 23.0% | 3.1% | 5% | D− |
| 4,711 | Franklin Township OH | 2,306 | $54K | 35.7% | 0.0% | 2% | D− |
| 4,712 | Abbeville AL | 2,378 | $32K | 21.7% | 6.4% | 22% | D− |
| 4,713 | Union MS | 2,007 | $45K | 31.7% | 8.3% | 11% | D− |
| 4,714 | Tularosa NM | 2,662 | $52K | 15.4% | 20.2% | 11% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Abbeville, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
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 Abbeville: questions
What is the median household income in Abbeville?
$31,712 (±$8,034) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Abbeville?
21.7%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Abbeville?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Abbeville work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dothan (18%, 24 mi), Montgomery (4%, 80 mi), Eufaula (4%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Abbeville walkable?
Abbeville is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Abbeville without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 23% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Abbeville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Abbeville
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.