Jasper Downtown Historic District · Photo: Rudi Weikard · CC BY-SA 3.0Jasper’s household incomes are lower than in 64% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Jasper C+; getting around on foot earns it B. Below the poverty line: 15.9% of residents, next to 15.6% across Alabama. About one in four work in Jasper; the top destination outside it is Birmingham (13%, 35 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Jasper: the gist
Jasper draws workers from far and wide
The 8,925 jobs in Jasper are filled from a wide area. Jasper’s own residents hold 18% and the ten next-biggest home towns 10%; the other 72% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Jasper’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Jasper is Birmingham, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (751) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Jasper is where the jobs are
Jasper has 8,925 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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’s behind Jasper’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Jasper is better than 37% of U.S. towns, #95 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Jasper’s grade up (3.5%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jasper could be anywhere from C− to B.
Commuting in to Jasper: where workers come from
Where Jasper clocks in
13% of workers
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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Jasper
About 22% 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.
Who commutes out of Jasper, and who commutes in
On a workday 4,211 residents head out to work, 1,618 work right here, and 7,307 people come in from elsewhere.
About 18,000 people are in Jasper on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.5 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.
Inside Jasper’s 8,925 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jasper, 2013 → 2023: 9,463 → 8,925. 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 Jasper’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Jasper
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jasper workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,861 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.
In Jasper, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jasper is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns, #32 of 187 in Alabama. Both inputs place Jasper 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 6,066 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). 5.9% of Jasper households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Jasper’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Jasper is 1,723rd among 2,362 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 270 | Pike Road AL | 11,899 | $117K | 5.1% | 0.5% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 481 | Chelsea AL | 17,716 | $115K | 2.7% | 3.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 686 | Gardendale AL | 16,425 | $82K | 4.3% | 3.4% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,721 | Scottsbluff NE | 14,259 | $56K | 15.4% | 2.6% | 51% | C+ |
| 1,722 | Tonawanda NY | 14,848 | $58K | 13.8% | 6.2% | 10% | C+ |
| 1,723 | Jasper AL | 14,585 | $66K | 15.9% | 3.5% | 28% | C+ |
| 1,724 | Nameoki Township IL | 11,971 | $65K | 17.3% | 6.7% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,725 | Derry Township PA | 13,360 | $66K | 14.4% | 4.5% | 13% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,362 | 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 Jasper, 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 Jasper: questions
What is the median household income in Jasper?
$66,238 (±$9,667) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jasper?
15.9%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jasper?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jasper work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (13%, 35 mi), Huntsville (3%, 68 mi), Homewood (2%, 38 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jasper walkable?
Jasper is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jasper without a car?
<1% 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 Jasper, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jasper
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.