College Street Historic District · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 4.028% of Troy’s residents are college students
Troy grades C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. About two in five work in Troy; the top destination outside it is Montgomery (11%, 42 miles). Measured by family income, Troy is behind 72% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Troy: the gist
Troy’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Troy is Montgomery, 42 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (720) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Troy is where the jobs are
Troy has 10,713 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Troy are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Alabama worker. Time on the road ↓
Troy draws workers from far and wide
The 10,713 jobs in Troy are filled from a wide area. Troy’s own residents hold 26% and the ten next-biggest home towns 13%; the other 61% 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.
Income, poverty and work: Troy’s grade explained
On family income, poverty and job access, Troy is better than 18% of U.S. towns, #141 of 187 in Alabama. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Troy’s grade.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (18% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 16.1%, against 25.0% for all residents. Unemployment (2.7%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($76,250), since student households pull the household median down ($50,717).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Troy could be anywhere from D to C.
Miles to work from Troy
About 25% 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.
Who works in Troy, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,986 residents head out to work, 2,758 work right here, and 7,955 people come in from elsewhere.
About 22,000 people are in Troy on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.6 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.
The daily trip from Troy: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Troy workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,561 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.
The daily trip into Troy
Where Troy clocks in
11% 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.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Inside Troy’s 10,713 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Troy, 2013 → 2023: 9,471 → 10,713. 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 Troy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Troy start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Troy is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #47 of 187 in Alabama. Both inputs place Troy 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 7,858 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). 6.3% of Troy households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Troy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Troy and other U.S. towns of 13,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Helena AL | 23,388 | $115K | 3.2% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 366 | Chelsea AL | 17,716 | $115K | 2.7% | 3.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,657 | Mountain Home ID | 16,779 | $63K | 11.4% | 6.1% | 29% | C− |
| 1,658 | Centralia WA | 19,375 | $56K | 19.6% | 5.7% | 16% | C− |
| 1,659 | Troy AL | 18,022 | $51K | 25.0% | 2.7% | 41% | C− |
| 1,660 | Alice TX | 17,550 | $49K | 31.4% | 4.1% | 37% | C− |
| 1,661 | Johnson City NY | 14,580 | $56K | 19.6% | 11.4% | 15% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,822 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Troy, 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 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Students. 28% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Troy: questions
What is the median household income in Troy?
$50,717 (±$11,625) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Troy?
25.0% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 16.1%. Alabama: 15.6%.
How long is the commute from Troy?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Troy work?
41% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montgomery (11%, 42 mi), Dothan (4%, 51 mi), Brundidge (2%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Troy walkable?
Troy is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Troy without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Troy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Troy
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.