Photo: Altairisfar · Public domainThomasville’s household incomes are lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 14% of U.S. towns on income, poverty, unemployment and job access · #150 of 187 in Alabama.
Walkability C: more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns · #98 of 187 in Alabama.
Working residents average 29 minutes each way (Alabama 26, U.S. 26). About one in four work in Thomasville; the top destination outside it is Mobile (7%, 89 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Thomasville, in brief
Thomasville is where the jobs are
Thomasville has 2,321 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
42% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. 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.
What’s behind Thomasville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Thomasville is better than 14% of U.S. towns, #150 of 187 in Alabama. Unemployment holds Thomasville’s grade up (3.1%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($42,671, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Thomasville could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Thomasville fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,126 residents head out to work, 382 work right here, and 1,939 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,400 people are in Thomasville on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Half of Thomasville commutes less than 29 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 42% 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.
Where Thomasville’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Thomasville clocks in
7% of workers
4% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 2,321 jobs in Thomasville are
2,321 jobs are based in Thomasville. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Thomasville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Thomasville, 2013 → 2023: 2,260 → 2,321. 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.
About 29 minutes each way, longer than most of Alabama
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Thomasville workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,222 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Alabama: 88% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Most trips from Thomasville start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Thomasville is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns, #98 of 187 in Alabama. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% 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 1,336 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). 9.0% of Thomasville households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Thomasville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Thomasville is 3,776th of 4,355 U.S. towns of 2,500 to 4,800 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Thomasville, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Eagle Point AL | 3,110 | $152K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Priceville AL | 3,952 | $117K | 2.2% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,774 | Maynardville TN | 2,723 | $46K | 21.7% | 6.4% | 9% | D |
| 3,775 | Pine Mountain Club CA | 2,838 | $69K | 10.3% | 9.9% | 6% | D |
| 3,776 | Thomasville AL | 3,545 | $43K | 20.2% | 3.1% | 25% | D |
| 3,777 | Danielson CT | 4,265 | $64K | 21.1% | 17.1% | 6% | D |
| 3,778 | East Dublin GA | 2,552 | $50K | 28.7% | 4.1% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,355 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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.
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 Thomasville: questions
What is the median household income in Thomasville?
$42,671 (±$11,244) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Thomasville?
20.2%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Thomasville?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Thomasville work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mobile (7%, 89 mi), Grove Hill (4%, 15 mi), Jackson (2%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Thomasville walkable?
Thomasville is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Thomasville without a car?
<1% 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 Thomasville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Thomasville
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.