Photo: Rivers Langley · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Ashland trail those of 95% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 25.0% of residents; Alabama has 15.6%. The two grades for Ashland are D− for jobs and income and C for walkability. About one in three work in Ashland itself; outside it, Lineville draws the most (6%, 6 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 Ashland
Ashland has far more jobs than workers
Ashland has 2,462 jobs, 3.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,600 people are in town, 87% more than the 2,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Ashland makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Ashland are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ashland residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 38%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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; with 770 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Ashland earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ashland is better than 3% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ashland’s grade.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Ashland’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, Ashland could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Who leaves Ashland for work, and who comes in
On a workday 528 residents head out to work, 242 work right here, and 2,220 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,600 people are in Ashland on a workday afternoon, 87% more than live here.
3.2 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Goods, not services: 54% of the jobs in Ashland
2,462 jobs are based in Ashland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ashland, 2013 → 2023: 2,101 → 2,462. 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 Ashland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Ashland commutes
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 trip into Ashland
Where Ashland clocks in
6% 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.
Ashland’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ashland workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 656 commuters (the 4% 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.
Driving is how Ashland gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ashland is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 684 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). 17.4% of Ashland households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Ashland’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ashland next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 365 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 478 | Vance AL | 2,332 | $95K | 7.3% | 1.3% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,959 | Minorca LA | 1,430 | $36K | 31.7% | 6.6% | 7% | D− |
| 4,960 | Ferrum VA | 1,774 | $40K | 37.1% | 7.3% | 7% | D− |
| 4,961 | Ashland AL | 1,952 | $42K | 25.0% | 0.0% | 31% | D− |
| 4,962 | Kellogg ID | 2,456 | $51K | 19.2% | 10.8% | 30% | D− |
| 4,963 | Anthony KS | 2,034 | $51K | 21.1% | 3.9% | 40% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | 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 Ashland, 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 Ashland: questions
What is the median household income in Ashland?
$42,308 (±$20,429) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ashland?
25.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ashland?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ashland work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lineville (6%, 6 mi), Birmingham (5%, 58 mi), Talladega (4%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ashland walkable?
Ashland is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ashland without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ashland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ashland
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.