Good Hope has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 2,030 people commute in to work
Measured by household income, Good Hope is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns. 2,087 jobs are based in Good Hope for 963 working residents. Jobs and income earn Good Hope B+; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Good Hope and work: the main findings
Good Hope is where the jobs are
Good Hope has 2,087 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,800 people are in town, 42% more than the 2,700 who live here. Day and night ↓
Good Hope and Cullman trade workers both ways
Cullman is the top workplace for Good Hope residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Good Hope come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Good Hope makes and builds things
50% of the jobs based in Good Hope are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Good Hope residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. 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 963 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Good Hope: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Good Hope is better than 70% of U.S. towns, #41 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Good Hope’s grade up (2.2%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (10.9%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Good Hope could be anywhere from C to A.
A workday in Good Hope: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 906 residents head out to work and 57 work right here.
About 3,800 people are in Good Hope on a workday afternoon, 42% 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.
Who travels to work in Good Hope, and from where
Where Good Hope clocks in
27% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
Goods jobs make up 50% of work in Good Hope
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Good Hope, 2013 → 2023: 1,689 → 2,087. 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 Good Hope’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Good Hope, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Good Hope workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,100 commuters (the 3% 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.
How many miles Good Hope commutes
About 15% 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.
Good Hope is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Good Hope is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns, #145 of 187 in Alabama. Both inputs place Good Hope 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 1,131 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). 9.8% of Good Hope households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Good Hope’s commuters take a bus or train.
Good Hope next to U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,600: 1,226th of 4,797 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Eagle Point AL | 3,110 | $152K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 244 | Emerald Mountain AL | 3,535 | $123K | 2.2% | 1.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,224 | Byron NY | 2,276 | $99K | 5.4% | 4.9% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,225 | Day Heights OH | 2,457 | $94K | 2.0% | 12.3% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,226 | Good Hope AL | 2,682 | $94K | 10.9% | 2.2% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,227 | Montague MI | 2,424 | $67K | 4.8% | 0.2% | 12% | B+ |
| 1,228 | Penndel PA | 2,507 | $76K | 11.8% | 3.2% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,797 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Good Hope, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Next door is work for 27% of Good Hope
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Cullman. Darker towns draw more of Good Hope’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 Good Hope: questions
What is the median household income in Good Hope?
$93,661 (±$20,864) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Good Hope?
10.9%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Good Hope?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Good Hope work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cullman (27%, 5 mi), Birmingham (9%, 40 mi), Huntsville (6%, 42 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Good Hope walkable?
Good Hope is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Good Hope without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Good Hope, from the people who make the trip.
More of Good Hope
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.