Malvern has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
Only 1% work in Malvern itself; outside it, Dothan draws the most (42%, 9 miles). 35.5% of residents live below the poverty line, against 15.6% across Alabama. For jobs and income Malvern is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Malvern and work: the main findings
Malvern is a place people come home to
There are 50 jobs based in Malvern, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Malvern has about 1,200 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
42% of Malvern works in Dothan
248 working residents, 42%, have their main job in Dothan, 9.3 miles away. That’s 42 times as many as work in Malvern itself. The commute map ↓
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 593 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Malvern’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Malvern’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Malvern’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, Malvern could be anywhere from D to C−.
How many people are in Malvern by day
On a workday 587 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 44 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Malvern on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.08 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Commuting out of Malvern: the destinations
Where Malvern clocks in
42% of workers
3% 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.
What the 50 jobs in Malvern are
50 jobs are based in Malvern.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Malvern, 2013 → 2023: 70 → 50. 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 Malvern’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Malvern, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Malvern workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 797 commuters (the 4% 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 far Malvern’s workers travel
About 25% 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.
Malvern is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Malvern is near the bottom of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Malvern 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 828 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). 4.6% of Malvern households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Malvern’s commuters take a bus or train.
5,080th of 5,760: where Malvern ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 362 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 963 | Smoke Rise AL | 1,471 | $86K | 5.5% | 8.6% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,078 | White Eyes Township OH | 1,235 | $35K | 16.4% | 2.3% | 3% | D |
| 5,079 | Fort Hancock TX | 1,345 | $48K | 12.3% | 3.2% | 3% | D |
| 5,080 | Malvern AL | 1,701 | $44K | 35.5% | 2.1% | 1% | D |
| 5,081 | Paonia CO | 1,477 | $60K | 17.1% | 5.8% | 17% | D |
| 5,082 | Springfield CO | 1,293 | $48K | 12.5% | 0.8% | 58% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Malvern, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Work in the towns next to Malvern
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Taylor. Darker towns draw more of Malvern’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 Malvern: questions
What is the median household income in Malvern?
$43,854 (±$17,181) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Malvern?
35.5%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Malvern?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Malvern work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dothan (42%, 9 mi), Enterprise (3%, 23 mi), Montgomery (3%, 94 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Malvern walkable?
Malvern is near the bottom of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Malvern without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Malvern, from the people who make the trip.
More of Malvern
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.