Photo: Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Sylacauga have lower incomes than those in 88% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Sylacauga; the top destination outside it is Birmingham (8%, 40 miles). 21.0% of residents are in poverty, next to 15.6% for Alabama as a whole. For jobs and income Sylacauga is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Sylacauga and work: the main findings
Sylacauga trades workers with the towns around it
Sylacauga has about as many jobs (5,111) as working residents (5,278), but they are mostly different people: 4,267 residents leave for work each day while 4,100 people come in. Only 20% of the jobs in Sylacauga are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Sylacauga’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sylacauga is Birmingham, 40 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (411) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
No single place dominates Sylacauga’s commute
The biggest draw, Birmingham, gets only 8% of working residents, and 55% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Sylacauga residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Sylacauga draws workers from far and wide
The 5,111 jobs in Sylacauga are filled from a wide area. Sylacauga’s own residents hold 20% and the ten next-biggest home towns 16%; the other 64% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
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.
How Sylacauga earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Sylacauga’s grade up (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($50,017, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sylacauga could be anywhere from D− to C.
In and out of Sylacauga on a workday
On a workday 4,267 residents head out to work, 1,011 work right here, and 4,100 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 (0.97 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.
The commute from Sylacauga, by distance
About 22% 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.
The places Sylacauga commutes to
Where Sylacauga clocks in
8% of workers
3% 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.
What work there is in Sylacauga: 5,111 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sylacauga, 2013 → 2023: 5,535 → 5,111. 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 Sylacauga’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Sylacauga
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sylacauga workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,576 commuters (the 3% 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 Sylacauga, work means a drive
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 4,737 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). 9.3% of Sylacauga households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sylacauga’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sylacauga compares with U.S. towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 144 | Meadowbrook AL | 9,117 | $142K | 5.5% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Pike Road AL | 11,899 | $117K | 5.1% | 0.5% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 399 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,555 | Port Jervis NY | 8,518 | $48K | 22.2% | 6.6% | 16% | D |
| 2,556 | Red Bluff CA | 14,404 | $52K | 18.8% | 7.2% | 27% | D |
| 2,557 | Sylacauga AL | 12,055 | $50K | 21.0% | 6.7% | 19% | D |
| 2,558 | Gaffney SC | 12,583 | $41K | 29.1% | 10.6% | 16% | D |
| 2,559 | Bonham TX | 11,263 | $58K | 21.7% | 9.4% | 22% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Sylacauga, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Work in the towns next to Sylacauga
The biggest share goes to Childersburg (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sylacauga workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sylacauga | – | D | C+ | 24 min | $50,017 |
| Mignon | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
| Oak Grove | under 2% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Childersburg | 3% | D | C− | 28 min | $52,338 |
| Fayetteville | under 2% | B− | D− | 54 min | $100,255 |
Same-state neighbors only. Mignon and Oak Grove: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sylacauga’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 Sylacauga: questions
What is the median household income in Sylacauga?
$50,017 (±$8,519) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sylacauga?
21.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sylacauga?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sylacauga work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (8%, 40 mi), Childersburg (3%, 10 mi), Hoover (3%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sylacauga walkable?
Sylacauga is more walkable than 39% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sylacauga without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sylacauga, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sylacauga
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.