Photo: The Bushranger · CC BY-SA 4.0Dothan draws more than half of Cowarts’ working residents
At 26 minutes each way, commutes from Cowarts run about the Alabama average. Cowarts grades C− for jobs and income and D for walkability. Measured by household income, Cowarts is behind 67% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Cowarts apart
More than half of Cowarts works in Dothan
402 working residents, 53%, have their main job in Dothan, 6 miles away across the town line. That’s 13 times as many as work in Cowarts itself. The commute map ↓
Most Cowarts residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Cowarts has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cowarts went from 359 in 2014 to 538 in 2024, +50%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 759 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Income, poverty and work: Cowarts’ grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Cowarts is better than 24% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cowarts’ grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (4.6%) is left out: Cowarts’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Cowarts could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Cowarts goes to work
Where Cowarts clocks in
53% 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.
How far Cowarts goes to work
About 17% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Jobs in Cowarts: what the 538 are
538 jobs are based in Cowarts.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cowarts, 2014 → 2024: 359 → 538. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cowarts’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Cowarts: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 731 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 510 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Cowarts on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
0.71 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 2024, primary jobs.
How long Cowarts spends getting to work: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cowarts workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 791 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.
In Cowarts, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cowarts is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 821 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). 3.7% of Cowarts households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cowarts’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Cowarts is 3,977th among 5,793 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800
| # | 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 422 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 479 | Trinity AL | 2,638 | $101K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,975 | Lewistown Township IL | 2,562 | $69K | 7.7% | 13.2% | 13% | C− |
| 3,976 | Winsor Township MI | 1,890 | $64K | 9.6% | 5.5% | 31% | C− |
| 3,977 | Cowarts AL | 2,064 | $64K | 18.5% | 4.6% | 4% | C− |
| 3,978 | Rockport IN | 1,966 | $49K | 13.3% | 3.2% | 11% | C− |
| 3,979 | Helt Township IN | 2,483 | $61K | 10.5% | 5.7% | 4% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Cowarts, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Bordering towns draw 53% of Cowarts’ workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Dothan. Darker towns draw more of Cowarts’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 2024, 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 Cowarts: questions
What is the median household income in Cowarts?
$64,118 (±$14,518) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cowarts?
18.5%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cowarts?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cowarts work?
4% work in town.
Is Cowarts walkable?
Cowarts is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cowarts without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cowarts, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cowarts
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.