Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Montevallo (7.2%) than in 84% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Montevallo is behind 79% of U.S. towns. Montevallo grades C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in ten work in Montevallo itself; outside it, Birmingham draws the most (13%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Montevallo and work: the main findings
Montevallo has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Montevallo went from 1,156 in 2013 to 2,021 in 2023, +75%. The jobs ↓
Montevallo’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Montevallo is Birmingham, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (337) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Montevallo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Montevallo is better than 22% of U.S. towns, #126 of 187 in Alabama. Job access by car holds Montevallo’s grade up (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Montevallo could be anywhere from D to B−.
What the 2,021 jobs in Montevallo are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Montevallo, 2013 → 2023: 1,156 → 2,021. 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 Montevallo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Montevallo
About 16% 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.
How many people are in Montevallo by day
On a workday 2,335 residents head out to work, 234 work right here, and 1,787 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.79 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 Montevallo goes to work
Where Montevallo clocks in
13% of workers
11% of workers
9% 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.
About 25 minutes each way for Montevallo’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Montevallo workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,994 commuters (the 10% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Montevallo
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Montevallo is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #8 of 187 in Alabama. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,315 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.7% of Montevallo households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Montevallo’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Montevallo is 2,512th of 3,026 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,600
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Meadowbrook AL | 9,117 | $142K | 5.5% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Highland Lakes AL | 5,866 | $169K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 389 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,510 | Bacliff TX | 9,541 | $51K | 28.9% | 7.4% | 3% | C− |
| 2,511 | Fairfield AL | 9,483 | $48K | 32.4% | 6.5% | 2% | C− |
| 2,512 | Montevallo AL | 7,872 | $57K | 17.7% | 7.2% | 9% | C− |
| 2,513 | Paradise CA | 10,023 | $68K | 18.2% | 4.9% | 18% | C− |
| 2,514 | Beardstown IL | 5,691 | $61K | 13.7% | 4.6% | 42% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,026 | 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 Montevallo, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Next door to Montevallo
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Montevallo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montevallo | – | C− | A− | 25 min | $56,626 |
| Wilton | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Wilton: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Montevallo’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 Montevallo: questions
What is the median household income in Montevallo?
$56,626 (±$13,306) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Montevallo?
17.7%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Montevallo?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Montevallo work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (13%, 28 mi), Alabaster (11%, 6 mi), Hoover (9%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Montevallo walkable?
Montevallo is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Montevallo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Montevallo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Montevallo
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.