Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0Attalla has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 11.3% of residents, where Alabama as a whole has 15.6%. Measured by household income, Attalla is behind 75% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 22 minutes each way, where Alabama has 26 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Attalla and work: the main findings
Attalla and Gadsden trade workers both ways
Gadsden is the top workplace for Attalla residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Attalla come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
44% of the jobs in Attalla are in trade, transport and utilities, against 23% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Attalla workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Attalla’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
The figures behind Attalla’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Attalla is better than 33% of U.S. towns, #99 of 187 in Alabama. Job access by car holds Attalla’s grade up (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($59,215, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Attalla could be anywhere from D to B+.
30% of working residents work in Gadsden
Where Attalla clocks in
30% 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.
What the 2,558 jobs in Attalla are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Attalla, 2013 → 2023: 2,439 → 2,558. 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 Attalla’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Attalla, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,785 residents head out to work, 219 work right here, and 2,339 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,400 people are in Attalla on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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.
Attalla’s commute takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Attalla workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,576 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.
Attalla’s commute, mile by mile
About 22% 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.
Most trips from Attalla start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Attalla is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns, #103 of 187 in Alabama. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.3% 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 2,656 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). 5.0% of Attalla households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Attalla’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 4,100 to 7,800, Attalla ranks 2,406th of 3,375 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Highland Lakes AL | 5,866 | $169K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 208 | Argo AL | 4,376 | $105K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 261 | Redland AL | 4,982 | $130K | 1.4% | 2.5% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,404 | Grayson Valley AL | 6,077 | $65K | 20.4% | 6.1% | <1% | C |
| 2,405 | Charlotte Harbor FL | 4,239 | $40K | 20.5% | 2.1% | 6% | C |
| 2,406 | Attalla AL | 5,807 | $59K | 11.3% | 5.5% | 11% | C |
| 2,407 | Sawmills NC | 5,105 | $71K | 9.9% | 8.0% | 2% | C |
| 2,408 | Everman TX | 6,537 | $68K | 20.8% | 10.9% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,375 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Attalla, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Work next door: 30% of Attalla’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Gadsden. Darker towns draw more of Attalla’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Attalla: questions
What is the median household income in Attalla?
$59,215 (±$9,798) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Attalla?
11.3%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Attalla?
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 Attalla work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gadsden (30%, 6 mi), Rainbow City (5%, 4 mi), Birmingham (4%, 50 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Attalla walkable?
Attalla is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Attalla 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 Attalla, from the people who make the trip.
More of Attalla
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.