Photo: Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Opelika draws 20,038 commuters a day, with 1.9 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Opelika C; getting around on foot earns it B−. Opelika has 24,558 jobs for 12,599 working residents. A typical one-way commute lasts 22 minutes, where Alabama has 26 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Opelika stands out on work
Opelika is where the jobs are
Opelika has 24,558 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Opelika and Auburn trade workers both ways
Auburn is the top workplace for Opelika residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Opelika come from (18% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Opelika residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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.
The four measures behind Opelika’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Opelika is better than 30% of U.S. towns, #103 of 187 in Alabama. Job access by car holds Opelika’s grade up (ahead of 56% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (16.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Opelika could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Opelika fills up on a workday
On a workday 8,079 residents head out to work and 4,520 work right here.
About 48,000 people are in Opelika on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
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 Opelika live
Where Opelika clocks in
27% of workers
4% 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.
The distance from Opelika to work
About 19% 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.
What Opelika’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Opelika, 2013 → 2023: 18,312 → 24,558. 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 Opelika’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Opelika: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Opelika workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,565 commuters (the 8% 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.
For most of Opelika, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Opelika is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns, #35 of 187 in Alabama. Both inputs place Opelika 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 14,665 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). 8.4% of Opelika households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Opelika’s commuters take a bus or train.
Opelika next to U.S. towns of 25,000 to 48,000: 1,048th of 1,219 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Trussville AL | 27,273 | $123K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 208 | Vestavia Hills AL | 38,306 | $134K | 10.0% | 1.9% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 236 | Pelham AL | 25,664 | $101K | 6.7% | 2.0% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,046 | Elizabethtown KY | 35,448 | $61K | 17.0% | 5.2% | 36% | C |
| 1,047 | Enterprise AL | 31,211 | $73K | 16.5% | 5.4% | 31% | C |
| 1,048 | Opelika AL | 35,765 | $65K | 16.0% | 5.6% | 36% | C |
| 1,049 | Shelbyville TN | 26,146 | $55K | 20.7% | 3.8% | 34% | C |
| 1,050 | Eastpointe MI | 33,814 | $62K | 17.5% | 12.9% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,219 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Opelika, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Opelika and its neighbors: 27% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Auburn. Darker towns draw more of Opelika’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 Opelika: questions
What is the median household income in Opelika?
$65,004 (±$6,526) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Opelika?
16.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Opelika?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Opelika work?
36% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Auburn (27%, 8 mi), Montgomery (4%, 56 mi), Columbus (3%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Opelika walkable?
Opelika is more walkable than 54% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Opelika 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 Opelika, from the people who make the trip.
More of Opelika
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.