Bear Creek has lower household incomes than 88% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Bear Creek D; getting around on foot earns it D−. Poverty touches 16.4% of residents; Alabama has 15.6%. Only 5% work in Bear Creek itself; outside it, Haleyville draws the most (14%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Bear Creek, in a few figures
Bear Creek makes and builds things
78% of the jobs based in Bear Creek are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Bear Creek residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 39%. The jobs ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Bear Creek than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Bear Creek fell from 434 in 2013 to 325 in 2023, −25%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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 431 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Bear Creek gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Bear Creek is better than 7% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Bear Creek’s grade.
Unemployment (8.2%) is left out: Bear Creek’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, Bear Creek could be anywhere from D− to C.
Goods jobs make up 78% of work in Bear Creek
325 jobs are based in Bear Creek.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bear Creek, 2013 → 2023: 434 → 325. 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 Bear Creek’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Bear Creek, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 409 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 303 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Bear Creek on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 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.
The towns that employ Bear Creek’s residents
Where Bear Creek clocks in
3% 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.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Bear Creek
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bear Creek workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 448 commuters (the 2% 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.
How far it is to work from Bear Creek
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.
Driving is how Bear Creek gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bear Creek is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Bear Creek 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 459 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). 0.7% of Bear Creek households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bear Creek’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Bear Creek comes 2,717th 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 151 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 162 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,715 | Gladwin Township MI | 1,151 | $59K | 18.7% | 5.9% | 1% | D |
| 2,716 | Wilhoit AZ | 1,101 | $58K | 15.9% | 7.5% | 1% | D |
| 2,717 | Bear Creek AL | 1,054 | $50K | 16.4% | 8.2% | 5% | D |
| 2,718 | Mancelona MI | 1,399 | $52K | 16.8% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 2,719 | Terrytown NE | 1,040 | $44K | 31.4% | 2.9% | <1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Bear Creek, 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 Bear Creek: questions
What is the median household income in Bear Creek?
$50,188 (±$25,929) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bear Creek?
16.4%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bear Creek?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bear Creek work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Haleyville (14%, 6 mi), Hamilton (5%, 17 mi), Florence (3%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bear Creek walkable?
Bear Creek is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bear Creek without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bear Creek, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bear Creek
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.