Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Households in Mobile have lower incomes than those in 83% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Mobile is better than 29% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (B). The poverty rate is 18.4%; Alabama has 15.6%. More than half work in Mobile; the top destination outside it is Daphne (2%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Mobile apart on work
Why Mobile gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Mobile’s grade up (ahead of 76% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($53,558, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mobile could be anywhere from C− to C.
How many people are in Mobile by day
On a workday 30,020 residents head out to work, 49,278 work right here, and 77,060 people come in from elsewhere.
About 248,000 people are in Mobile on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.6 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 Mobile live
Where Mobile clocks in
2% 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.
The kinds of work in Mobile
126,338 jobs are based in Mobile.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mobile, 2013 → 2023: 119,969 → 126,338. 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 Mobile’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Mobile
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mobile workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 81,636 commuters (the 9% 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 Mobile commutes
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 Mobile, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 89,958 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). 7.7% of Mobile households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Mobile’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Mobile places 110th of 136 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 141,000 to 271,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| 3 | Olathe KS | 150,025 | $114K | 5.6% | 2.7% | 26% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Huntsville AL | 233,627 | $75K | 12.6% | 4.1% | 66% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Laredo TX | 269,515 | $64K | 20.9% | 5.4% | 76% | C |
| 109 | Paradise NV | 185,913 | $59K | 17.6% | 9.8% | 37% | C |
| 110 | Mobile AL | 200,824 | $54K | 18.4% | 5.6% | 62% | C |
| 111 | Eugene OR | 178,618 | $67K | 19.0% | 7.6% | 56% | C |
| 112 | Center Township IN | 155,258 | $55K | 24.7% | 6.8% | 32% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Birmingham AL | 195,893 | $46K | 24.7% | 5.8% | 44% | C |
| 118 | Montgomery AL | 195,300 | $57K | 21.5% | 6.4% | 64% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Mobile, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
The towns around Mobile
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mobile workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | – | C | B | 23 min | $53,558 |
| Tillmans Corner | 2% | C− | B− | 26 min | $60,837 |
| Prichard | 1% | D | B | 25 min | $36,588 |
| Chickasaw | under 1% | C | B− | 22 min | $46,559 |
| Theodore | under 1% | B− | D | 25 min | $67,864 |
| Saraland | 2% | B− | C− | 26 min | $61,509 |
| Semmes | under 1% | C− | C+ | 24 min | $66,417 |
| Spanish Fort | 1% | B+ | C | 26 min | $99,346 |
| Satsuma | under 1% | B+ | C− | 23 min | $101,042 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Tillmans Corner. Darker towns draw more of Mobile’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 Mobile: questions
What is the median household income in Mobile?
$53,558 (±$1,982) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mobile?
18.4%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mobile?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mobile work?
62% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Daphne (2%, 14 mi), Tillmans Corner (2%, 9 mi), Saraland (2%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mobile walkable?
Mobile is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mobile without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mobile, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mobile
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.