Photo: Robert Donovan from Franklin, TN, USA · CC BY 2.0Mountain Brook has higher household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 3.2% of residents, next to 15.6% for Alabama as a whole. For jobs and income Mountain Brook is among the top U.S. towns (A+); for walkability it is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (B−). 17% of workers have no commute at all, against 9% across Alabama.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Mountain Brook stands out on work
Much of Mountain Brook works one town over
59% of working residents work in a town that borders Mountain Brook: Birmingham (42%), Homewood (9%) and Vestavia Hills (6%). Next door ↓
Mountain Brook trades workers with the towns around it
Mountain Brook has about as many jobs (9,034) as working residents (8,560), but they are mostly different people: 7,914 residents leave for work each day while 8,388 people come in. Only 7% of the jobs in Mountain Brook are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Most Mountain Brook residents work close to home
76% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Commutes from Mountain Brook are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Alabama worker. Time on the road ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Mountain Brook
76% of Mountain Brook residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 57% of the jobs based in Mountain Brook pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 92% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
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 Mountain Brook’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mountain Brook is among the top U.S. towns, #1 of 187 in Alabama. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mountain Brook’s grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mountain Brook stays A+.
How a workday changes Mountain Brook
On a workday 7,914 residents head out to work, 646 work right here, and 8,388 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 (1.06 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.
Mountain Brook’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Time on the road from Mountain Brook: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mountain Brook workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,488 commuters (the 17% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Mountain Brook
9,034 jobs are based in Mountain Brook.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mountain Brook, 2013 → 2023: 8,638 → 9,034. 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 Mountain Brook’s own residents hold wherever they work.
42% of working residents work in Birmingham
Where Mountain Brook clocks in
42% of workers
7% 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 commute in Mountain Brook is mostly behind the wheel
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% of 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 10,216 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 15% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 4% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 54% 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). 1.0% of Mountain Brook households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mountain Brook’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,787 U.S. towns of 15,000 to 29,000, Mountain Brook comes 4th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 4 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 5 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| 6 | Powell OH | 18,269 | $195K | 1.1% | 2.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Trussville AL | 27,273 | $123K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Helena AL | 23,388 | $115K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 345 | Pelham AL | 25,664 | $101K | 6.7% | 2.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,787 | 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 Mountain Brook, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
59% of Mountain Brook works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Birmingham (42%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mountain Brook workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Brook | – | A+ | B− | 16 min | $201,479 |
| Vestavia Hills | 6% | A | B | 19 min | $134,369 |
| Birmingham | 42% | C | A | 21 min | $46,051 |
| Irondale | 2% | C+ | C | 22 min | $72,343 |
| Homewood | 9% | A | A | 17 min | $94,485 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Mountain Brook’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 Mountain Brook: questions
What is the median household income in Mountain Brook?
$201,479 (±$15,143) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mountain Brook?
3.2%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mountain Brook?
16 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mountain Brook work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (42%, 4 mi), Homewood (9%, 5 mi), Hoover (7%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mountain Brook walkable?
Mountain Brook is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mountain Brook without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 4% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mountain Brook, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mountain Brook
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.