Photo: Chris Pruitt · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Piedmont trail those of 96% of U.S. towns
Piedmont grades C− for jobs and income and C for walkability. The poverty rate is 19.9%, against 15.6% across Alabama. About one in five work in Piedmont itself; outside it, Anniston draws the most (11%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Piedmont earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Piedmont is better than 22% of U.S. towns, #129 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Piedmont’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($40,506, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Piedmont could be anywhere from D to C+.
The daily commute in and out of Piedmont
On a workday 1,346 residents head out to work, 310 work right here, and 891 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,200 people are in Piedmont on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.73 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Out of Piedmont to work: where people go
Where Piedmont clocks in
11% of workers
7% of workers
5% 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.
What the 1,201 jobs in Piedmont are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Piedmont, 2014 → 2024: 1,196 → 1,201. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Piedmont’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Piedmont: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Piedmont workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,847 commuters (the 4% 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.
Where in the region Piedmont works
About 26% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Piedmont, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Piedmont is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns, #115 of 187 in Alabama. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 1,919 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). 4.5% of Piedmont households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Piedmont’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,798 U.S. towns of 3,300 to 6,300, Piedmont comes 3,038th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Highland Lakes AL | 5,866 | $169K | 4.1% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 175 | Priceville AL | 3,952 | $117K | 2.2% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 208 | Argo AL | 4,376 | $105K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,036 | Curry Township IN | 3,431 | $53K | 15.1% | 3.8% | 6% | C− |
| 3,037 | Mountain View Acres CA | 3,512 | $79K | 28.4% | 16.4% | 1% | C− |
| 3,038 | Piedmont AL | 4,696 | $41K | 19.9% | 2.8% | 19% | C− |
| 3,039 | Whitesboro NY | 3,559 | $46K | 22.8% | 5.5% | 4% | C− |
| 3,040 | Yorkshire NY | 3,733 | $48K | 19.0% | 2.5% | 8% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,798 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Piedmont, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Piedmont: questions
What is the median household income in Piedmont?
$40,506 (±$8,364) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Piedmont?
19.9%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Piedmont?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Piedmont work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Anniston (11%, 21 mi), Gadsden (7%, 24 mi), Oxford (5%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Piedmont walkable?
Piedmont is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Piedmont without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Piedmont, from the people who make the trip.
More of Piedmont
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.