Photo: Crimson Pictures · CC BY-SA 4.0A job hub: Orange Beach has 2.3 jobs per working resident, and 6,289 people come in to work
Orange Beach has 7,170 jobs; 3,151 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Orange Beach B+; getting around on foot earns it B+. Working from home is the commute for 22% of workers, next to 9% for Alabama as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Orange Beach apart on work
Orange Beach is where the jobs are
Orange Beach has 7,170 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 13,000 people are in town, 46% more than the 8,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Orange Beach
22% of Orange Beach workers work from home, against 9% across Alabama. Time on the road ↓
Orange Beach has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Orange Beach went from 4,876 in 2013 to 7,170 in 2023, +47%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Orange Beach earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Orange Beach is better than 69% of U.S. towns, #43 of 187 in Alabama. The poverty rate holds Orange Beach’s grade up (2.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Orange Beach could be anywhere from B− to A.
How a workday changes Orange Beach
On a workday 2,270 residents head out to work and 881 work right here.
About 13,000 people are in Orange Beach on a workday afternoon, 46% 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.
About 25 minutes each way for Orange Beach’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 Orange Beach workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,585 commuters (the 22% 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.
What Orange Beach’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Orange Beach, 2013 → 2023: 4,876 → 7,170. 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 Orange Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Orange Beach live
Where Orange Beach clocks in
13% of workers
11% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Orange Beach
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.
Most trips from Orange Beach start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Orange Beach is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #16 of 187 in Alabama. Both inputs place Orange Beach 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 4,615 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). 2.4% of Orange Beach households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Orange Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Orange Beach is 1,137th of 2,878 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Meadowbrook AL | 9,117 | $142K | 5.5% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 302 | Pike Road AL | 11,899 | $117K | 5.1% | 0.5% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 400 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,135 | Washington NJ | 7,326 | $81K | 8.5% | 3.0% | 5% | B+ |
| 1,136 | Vinton VA | 7,967 | $65K | 10.5% | 0.9% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,137 | Orange Beach AL | 8,798 | $98K | 2.6% | 3.8% | 28% | B+ |
| 1,138 | Mascoutah IL | 9,239 | $97K | 9.8% | 4.1% | 14% | B+ |
| 1,139 | La Grange KY | 10,669 | $88K | 8.0% | 4.2% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | 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 Orange Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Orange Beach and its neighbors: 21% work next door
The biggest share goes to Gulf Shores (13%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Orange Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Beach | – | B+ | B+ | 25 min | $97,736 |
| Gulf Shores | 13% | B− | C+ | 22 min | $78,188 |
| Foley | 8% | C+ | B− | 26 min | $66,336 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Orange Beach’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 Orange Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Orange Beach?
$97,736 (±$8,624) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Orange Beach?
2.6%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Orange Beach?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Orange Beach work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gulf Shores (13%, 6 mi), Mobile (11%, 40 mi), Foley (8%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Orange Beach walkable?
Orange Beach is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Orange Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Orange Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Orange Beach
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.