Photo: Dave warren80 · CC BY-SA 4.0Cullman draws 14,955 commuters a day, with 2.3 jobs for every working resident
Cullman grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. There are 17,436 jobs in Cullman for 7,555 working residents. About one in three work in Cullman; the top destination outside it is Huntsville (7%, 37 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Cullman apart on work
Cullman draws workers from far and wide
The 17,436 jobs in Cullman are filled from a wide area. Cullman’s own residents hold 14% and the ten next-biggest home towns 11%; the other 75% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Cullman is where the jobs are
Cullman has 17,436 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 31,000 people are in town, 48% more than the 21,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Cullman are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Alabama worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Cullman’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cullman is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #86 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Cullman’s grade up (2.9%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.9%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cullman could be anywhere from C− to B.
The daily trip into Cullman
Where Cullman clocks in
7% of workers
7% 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 many people are in Cullman by day
On a workday 5,074 residents head out to work and 2,481 work right here.
About 31,000 people are in Cullman on a workday afternoon, 48% more 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.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Cullman
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cullman workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,194 commuters (the 6% 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.
What Cullman’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cullman, 2013 → 2023: 15,241 → 17,436. 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 Cullman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Cullman works
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Few in Cullman walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cullman is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns, #54 of 187 in Alabama. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of 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 8,730 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). 4.3% of Cullman households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cullman’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,272nd of 1,705: where Cullman ranks among U.S. towns of 15,000 to 28,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Trussville AL | 27,273 | $123K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Helena AL | 23,388 | $115K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,270 | Bartow FL | 23,617 | $68K | 18.1% | 4.4% | 20% | C+ |
| 1,271 | East Riverdale MD | 18,336 | $82K | 24.0% | 10.7% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,272 | Cullman AL | 20,799 | $61K | 19.9% | 2.9% | 33% | C+ |
| 1,273 | Winchester KY | 19,514 | $54K | 17.3% | 3.6% | 25% | C+ |
| 1,274 | Oxford OH | 22,387 | $41K | 45.5% | 14.4% | 30% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,705 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Cullman, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
How Cullman compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Good Hope (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Cullman’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 Cullman: questions
What is the median household income in Cullman?
$61,224 (±$11,969) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cullman?
19.9%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cullman?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cullman work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Huntsville (7%, 37 mi), Birmingham (7%, 45 mi), Good Hope (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cullman walkable?
Cullman is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cullman 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 Cullman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cullman
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.