Cornwall Furnace · Photo: Thomson200 · CC0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Cedar Bluff works elsewhere
Measured by household income, Cedar Bluff is behind 85% of U.S. towns. 227 jobs are based in Cedar Bluff for 542 working residents. Cedar Bluff grades D− for jobs and income and C for walkability.
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 Cedar Bluff
How Cedar Bluff earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Cedar Bluff is better than 4% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cedar Bluff’s grade.
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Cedar Bluff’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, Cedar Bluff could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far Cedar Bluff’s workers travel
About 38% 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.
How many people are in Cedar Bluff by day
On a workday 529 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 214 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Cedar Bluff on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
14% of working residents work in Centre
Where Cedar Bluff clocks in
Lines 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 Cedar Bluff
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cedar Bluff, 2013 → 2023: 194 → 227. 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 Cedar Bluff’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cedar Bluff’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cedar Bluff workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 557 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.
Cedar Bluff is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cedar Bluff is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cedar Bluff 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 583 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). 5.3% of Cedar Bluff households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cedar Bluff’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cedar Bluff and other 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 4,906 | Romney WV | 1,767 | $49K | 25.9% | 10.3% | 14% | D− |
| 4,907 | Lakeview WA | 1,584 | $46K | 18.5% | 13.7% | 1% | D− |
| 4,908 | Cedar Bluff AL | 1,948 | $53K | 29.3% | 3.9% | 2% | D− |
| 4,909 | Lake Placid FL | 2,599 | $47K | 23.8% | 8.1% | 15% | D− |
| 4,910 | Morgan GA | 1,818 | $46K | 20.6% | 29.6% | 5% | 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 Cedar Bluff, 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 Cedar Bluff: questions
What is the median household income in Cedar Bluff?
$52,500 (±$13,541) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cedar Bluff?
29.3%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cedar Bluff?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cedar Bluff work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Centre (14%, 7 mi), Rome (10%, 23 mi), Fort Payne (6%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cedar Bluff walkable?
Cedar Bluff is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cedar Bluff 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 Cedar Bluff, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cedar Bluff
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.