Photo: SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Goodwater earn less than those in 96% of U.S. towns
For 0% of workers, the job is at home; Alabama has 9%. 36.4% of residents live below the poverty line, where Alabama as a whole has 15.6%. The two grades for Goodwater are D− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Goodwater apart on work
Goodwater is where the jobs are
Goodwater has 659 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Goodwater and Alexander City trade workers both ways
Alexander City is the top workplace for Goodwater residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Goodwater come from (22% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Goodwater makes and builds things
62% of the jobs based in Goodwater are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Goodwater residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 34%. 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 381 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Goodwater’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Goodwater is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Goodwater’s grade up (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (6.8%) is left out: Goodwater’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Goodwater could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves Goodwater for work, and who comes in
On a workday 348 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 626 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Goodwater on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Where the people who work in Goodwater live
Where Goodwater clocks in
18% of workers
9% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 62% of the jobs in Goodwater
659 jobs are based in Goodwater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Goodwater, 2013 → 2023: 547 → 659. 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 Goodwater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes to work from Goodwater
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Goodwater workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 334 commuters (the 0% 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.
Miles to work from Goodwater
About 27% 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.
Driving is how Goodwater gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Goodwater is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 4.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 334 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). 1.6% of Goodwater households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Goodwater’s commuters take a bus or train.
Goodwater next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 294 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,651 | Cleon Township MI | 1,057 | $52K | 27.1% | 5.9% | 4% | D− |
| 4,652 | Briggs OK | 1,131 | $47K | 28.4% | 9.9% | 2% | D− |
| 4,653 | Goodwater AL | 1,256 | $40K | 36.4% | 6.8% | 9% | D− |
| 4,654 | Glouster OH | 1,630 | $38K | 28.0% | 4.8% | 5% | D− |
| 4,655 | Glenville WV | 1,047 | $47K | 23.7% | 7.1% | 34% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Goodwater, 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 Goodwater: questions
What is the median household income in Goodwater?
$39,511 (±$13,886) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Goodwater?
36.4%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Goodwater?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Goodwater work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Alexander City (18%, 12 mi), Montgomery (9%, 51 mi), Sylacauga (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Goodwater walkable?
Goodwater is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.2 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Goodwater without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Goodwater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Goodwater
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.