Photo: Jet Lowe · Public domainHouseholds in Cordova earn less than those in 97% of U.S. towns
Cordova grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability. The poverty rate is 29.0%, next to 15.6% for Alabama as a whole. Home is the office for 1% of workers, where Alabama as a whole has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Cordova: the gist
Cordova and Jasper trade workers both ways
Jasper is the top workplace for Cordova residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Cordova come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Cordova
56% of Cordova residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 36% of the jobs based in Cordova pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% leave town for their job. 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 684 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Cordova’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Cordova is better than 10% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cordova’s grade up (ahead of 51% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($37,662, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.6%) is left out: Cordova’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, Cordova stays D.
15% of working residents work in Jasper
Where Cordova clocks in
15% of workers
14% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
494 jobs are based in Cordova.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cordova, 2013 → 2023: 388 → 494. 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 Cordova’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Cordova for work, and who comes in
On a workday 656 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 466 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Cordova on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.72 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
About 27 minutes to work from Cordova
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cordova workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 453 commuters (the 1% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Cordova
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.
Few in Cordova walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cordova is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 4.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 456 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). 6.2% of Cordova households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Cordova’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cordova places 4,822nd of 5,760 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 362 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 963 | Smoke Rise AL | 1,471 | $86K | 5.5% | 8.6% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,820 | Palmer TX | 1,435 | $19K | 76.2% | 0.0% | 0% | D |
| 4,821 | MacArthur WV | 1,493 | $36K | 36.4% | 16.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,822 | Cordova AL | 1,679 | $38K | 29.0% | 4.6% | 4% | D |
| 4,823 | Elbow Lake MN | 1,276 | $60K | 19.3% | 4.9% | 18% | D |
| 4,824 | Marion WI | 1,273 | $61K | 19.6% | 2.2% | 10% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Cordova, 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 Cordova: questions
What is the median household income in Cordova?
$37,662 (±$4,269) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cordova?
29.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cordova?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cordova work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jasper (15%, 7 mi), Birmingham (14%, 28 mi), Huntsville (4%, 71 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cordova walkable?
Cordova is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cordova without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cordova, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cordova
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.