Household incomes in Brent are among the lowest of any U.S. town
Below the poverty line: 50.8% of residents; Alabama has 15.6%. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Jobs and income earn Brent D−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Brent
The four measures behind Brent’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Brent is better than 3% of U.S. towns, #177 of 187 in Alabama. Job access by car holds Brent’s grade up (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($22,660, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (26.6%) is left out: Brent’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Brent stays D−.
Making and building: 55% of jobs based in Brent
1,372 jobs are based in Brent.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brent, 2013 → 2023: 1,466 → 1,372. 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 Brent’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Brent, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 989 residents head out to work, 104 work right here, and 1,268 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.26 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.
13% of working residents work in Centreville
Where Brent clocks in
13% of workers
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.
About 29 minutes each way, longer than most of Alabama
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brent workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 517 commuters (the 8% 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 Brent goes to work
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 of Brent commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brent is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #48 of 187 in Alabama. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 560 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). 11.6% of Brent households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Brent’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 3,100 to 6,000, and where Brent sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 114 | Eagle Point AL | 3,110 | $152K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 151 | Highland Lakes AL | 5,866 | $169K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Priceville AL | 3,952 | $117K | 2.2% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,890 | El Cerro Mission NM | 5,323 | $49K | 25.0% | 14.8% | 1% | D− |
| 3,891 | Geneva AL | 4,307 | $47K | 27.3% | 9.8% | 34% | D− |
| 3,892 | Brent AL | 4,414 | $23K | 50.8% | 26.6% | 10% | D− |
| 3,893 | Winona MS | 3,795 | $32K | 32.1% | 6.6% | 24% | D− |
| 3,894 | Holdenville OK | 5,923 | $46K | 24.2% | 7.9% | 30% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,000 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Brent, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
13% of Brent works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brent workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brent | – | D− | B− | 29 min | $22,660 |
| Centreville | 13% | D | C− | 28 min | $39,477 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Centreville. Darker towns draw more of Brent’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 Brent: questions
What is the median household income in Brent?
$22,660 (±$2,845) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brent?
50.8%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brent?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brent work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Centreville (13%, 2 mi), Tuscaloosa (9%, 29 mi), Montgomery (3%, 67 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brent walkable?
Brent is more walkable than 50% 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 Brent without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brent, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brent
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.