Pleasant Grove has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Jobs and income earn Pleasant Grove B; getting around on foot earns it C−. Pleasant Grove has 760 jobs, and 4,291 of its residents work somewhere. Only 2% work in Pleasant Grove itself; outside it, Birmingham draws the most (35%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Pleasant Grove, in brief
Pleasant Grove is a place people come home to
There are 760 jobs based in Pleasant Grove, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Pleasant Grove has about 5,800 people in it, 38% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Pleasant Grove and Birmingham trade workers both ways
Birmingham is the top workplace for Pleasant Grove residents (35%) and also where the most people who work in Pleasant Grove come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Pleasant Grove’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pleasant Grove is better than 60% of U.S. towns, #54 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Pleasant Grove’s grade up (1.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pleasant Grove could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Who leaves Pleasant Grove for work, and who comes in
On a workday 4,213 residents head out to work, 78 work right here, and 682 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,800 people are in Pleasant Grove on a workday afternoon, 38% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Pleasant Grove goes to work
Where Pleasant Grove clocks in
35% of workers
9% 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 kinds of work in Pleasant Grove
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pleasant Grove, 2014 → 2024: 743 → 760. 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 Pleasant Grove’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Pleasant Grove: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pleasant Grove workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,282 commuters (the 7% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Pleasant Grove
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.
Driving is how Pleasant Grove gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pleasant Grove is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns, #141 of 187 in Alabama. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 5.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,618 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). 5.9% of Pleasant Grove households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pleasant Grove’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,600, Pleasant Grove ranks 1,422nd of 2,867 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Meadowbrook AL | 9,117 | $142K | 5.5% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 302 | Pike Road AL | 11,899 | $117K | 5.1% | 0.5% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 402 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,420 | Westwood Lakes FL | 10,553 | $86K | 8.3% | 8.3% | 3% | B |
| 1,421 | Fuller Heights FL | 10,083 | $82K | 7.7% | 4.9% | 1% | B |
| 1,422 | Pleasant Grove AL | 9,346 | $70K | 19.7% | 1.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,423 | Sheboygan Falls WI | 8,687 | $71K | 7.6% | 4.0% | 12% | B |
| 1,424 | Reedsburg WI | 10,641 | $75K | 8.3% | 2.6% | 34% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,867 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Pleasant Grove, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Bordering towns draw 37% of Pleasant Grove’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pleasant Grove workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Grove | – | B | C− | 26 min | $70,317 |
| Birmingham | 35% | C | A | 21 min | $46,051 |
| Hueytown | 2% | C | C− | 26 min | $62,784 |
| Edgewater | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| McDonald Chapel | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Edgewater and McDonald Chapel: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Birmingham. Darker towns draw more of Pleasant Grove’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 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 Pleasant Grove: questions
What is the median household income in Pleasant Grove?
$70,317 (±$12,142) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pleasant Grove?
19.7%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pleasant Grove?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pleasant Grove work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (35%, 11 mi), Bessemer (9%, 8 mi), Hoover (7%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Pleasant Grove walkable?
Pleasant Grove is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pleasant Grove 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 Pleasant Grove, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pleasant Grove
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.