Photo: Prussian_Fool · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Dothan are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns
19.3% of residents are in poverty, where Alabama as a whole has 15.6%. For jobs and income Dothan is better than 30% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (B−). More than half work in Dothan; the top destination outside it is Montgomery (3%, 92 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Dothan, in a few figures
Dothan is where the jobs are
Dothan has 43,945 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Dothan are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 46 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Dothan
Job access by car holds Dothan’s grade up (ahead of 60% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dothan stays C.
Who commutes out of Dothan, and who commutes in
On a workday 11,320 residents head out to work, 15,685 work right here, and 28,260 people come in from elsewhere.
About 89,000 people are in Dothan on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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 20 minutes each way for Dothan’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dothan workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 29,557 commuters (the 5% 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.
Where Dothan’s workforce comes from
Where Dothan clocks in
3% of workers
2% 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.
What the 43,945 jobs in Dothan are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dothan, 2013 → 2023: 39,071 → 43,945. 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 Dothan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Dothan commutes less than 5 miles
About 20% 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.
Getting around Dothan: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.3% 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 31,101 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). 8.0% of Dothan households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Dothan’s commuters take a bus or train.
547th of 628: where Dothan ranks among U.S. towns of 50,000 to 97,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Madison AL | 67,968 | $135K | 4.3% | 2.2% | 13% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 84 | Hoover AL | 93,550 | $109K | 5.1% | 3.5% | 18% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 340 | Auburn AL | 85,113 | $64K | 25.4% | 3.2% | 44% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 545 | Greenville NC | 96,443 | $50K | 24.6% | 9.0% | 46% | C |
| 546 | Yuba City CA | 69,485 | $75K | 14.3% | 7.0% | 26% | C |
| 547 | Dothan AL | 72,060 | $56K | 19.3% | 4.3% | 58% | C |
| 548 | Perth Amboy NJ | 56,739 | $62K | 20.2% | 14.3% | 14% | C |
| 549 | Hilo HI | 50,404 | $82K | 14.5% | 6.9% | 60% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 628 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | 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 Dothan, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Dothan and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Headland (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Dothan workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dothan | – | C | B− | 20 min | $55,792 |
| Webb | under 1% | C+ | C− | 33 min | $54,792 |
| Rehobeth | under 1% | B− | D | 22 min | $80,972 |
| Kinsey | under 1% | B− | D− | 22 min | $55,500 |
| Midland City | under 1% | D | D | 21 min | $28,438 |
| Napier Field | under 1% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Taylor | under 1% | C | D | 25 min | $67,464 |
| Cowarts | under 1% | C− | D | 26 min | $64,118 |
| Headland | 1% | B+ | C− | 22 min | $79,063 |
| Grimes | under 1% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Napier Field and Grimes: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Dothan’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 Dothan: questions
What is the median household income in Dothan?
$55,792 (±$1,256) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dothan?
19.3%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dothan?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dothan work?
58% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montgomery (3%, 92 mi), Enterprise (2%, 27 mi), Ozark (1%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dothan walkable?
Dothan is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dothan without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dothan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dothan
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.