Ernest Baxter Fite House · Photo: Rich Bailey · Public domainHouseholds in Hamilton have lower incomes than those in 81% of U.S. towns
About one in three stay in Hamilton for work; outside it, Guin is the main destination (4%, 11 miles). Poverty touches 16.7% of residents, where Alabama as a whole has 15.6%. Hamilton grades C− for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Hamilton: the gist
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Hamilton
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hamilton is better than 20% of U.S. towns, #133 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Hamilton’s grade up (3.9%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($54,871, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hamilton could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Hamilton
About 31% 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.
In and out of Hamilton on a workday
On a workday 1,799 residents head out to work, 896 work right here, and 2,788 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,800 people are in Hamilton on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.37 per resident).
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 Hamilton goes to work
Where Hamilton clocks in
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.
Goods, not services: 28% of the jobs in Hamilton
3,684 jobs are based in Hamilton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hamilton, 2013 → 2023: 3,571 → 3,684. 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 Hamilton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Hamilton takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hamilton workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,184 commuters (the 7% 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.
Driving is how Hamilton gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hamilton is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns, #143 of 187 in Alabama. 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 2,350 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). 6.5% of Hamilton households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hamilton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 4,700 to 9,100, Hamilton ranks 2,727th of 3,253 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Highland Lakes AL | 5,866 | $169K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 266 | Redland AL | 4,982 | $130K | 1.4% | 2.5% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,725 | Sheridan OR | 6,243 | $71K | 12.0% | 7.0% | 5% | C− |
| 2,726 | Turtle Creek PA | 4,865 | $46K | 17.6% | 16.1% | 4% | C− |
| 2,727 | Hamilton AL | 6,769 | $55K | 16.7% | 3.9% | 33% | C− |
| 2,728 | Palmer AK | 6,710 | $72K | 13.0% | 6.9% | — | C− |
| 2,729 | Tillamook OR | 5,162 | $58K | 11.8% | 4.8% | 31% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,253 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Hamilton, 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 Hamilton: questions
What is the median household income in Hamilton?
$54,871 (±$20,991) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hamilton?
16.7%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hamilton?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hamilton work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Guin (4%, 11 mi), Winfield (3%, 17 mi), Tupelo (3%, 44 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hamilton walkable?
Hamilton is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hamilton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hamilton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hamilton
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.