Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Ardmore trail those of 87% of U.S. towns
Only 6% stay in Ardmore for work; outside it, Huntsville is the main destination (36%, 22 miles). 12.6% of residents are in poverty, where Alabama as a whole has 15.6%. For jobs and income Ardmore is better than 24% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ardmore at work: what stands out
36% of Ardmore works in Huntsville
211 working residents, 36%, have their main job in Huntsville, 22 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Ardmore itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Ardmore
56% of Ardmore residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 36% of the jobs based in Ardmore pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
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; with 583 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Ardmore’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Ardmore’s grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($50,352, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Ardmore’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ardmore could be anywhere from D to B−.
The towns that employ Ardmore’s residents
Where Ardmore clocks in
36% of workers
12% of workers
5% 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 Ardmore
354 jobs are based in Ardmore.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ardmore, 2013 → 2023: 281 → 354. 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 Ardmore’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ardmore on a workday afternoon
On a workday 550 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 321 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Ardmore on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.61 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Time on the road from Ardmore: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ardmore workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 631 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Ardmore
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.
In Ardmore, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 1.7% across Alabama.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 652 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). 4.7% of Ardmore households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ardmore’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ardmore next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000: 4,072nd of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 369 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 403 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,070 | Warren Township PA | 1,018 | $71K | 12.7% | 4.2% | 1% | C− |
| 4,071 | Conover WI | 1,373 | $62K | 7.3% | 6.4% | 4% | C− |
| 4,072 | Ardmore AL | 1,485 | $50K | 12.6% | 1.5% | 6% | C− |
| 4,073 | Montezuma IA | 1,417 | $66K | 12.5% | 3.8% | 21% | C− |
| 4,074 | Cochranton PA | 1,090 | $59K | 11.4% | 1.1% | 3% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Ardmore, 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 Ardmore: questions
What is the median household income in Ardmore?
$50,352 (±$12,716) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ardmore?
12.6%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ardmore?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ardmore work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Huntsville (36%, 22 mi), Athens (12%, 16 mi), Madison (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ardmore walkable?
Ardmore is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ardmore without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ardmore, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ardmore
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.