Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site · Photo: Rivers A. Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Tuskegee’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Tuskegee D; getting around on foot earns it B+. 29.0% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 15.6% for Alabama as a whole. About one in four work in Tuskegee itself; outside it, Auburn draws the most (13%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Tuskegee apart
Tuskegee trades workers with the towns around it
Tuskegee has about as many jobs (2,967) as working residents (2,946), but they are mostly different people: 2,249 residents leave for work each day while 2,270 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Tuskegee are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
The jobs in Tuskegee pay better than its residents’ jobs
61% of the jobs based in Tuskegee pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 40% of the jobs Tuskegee residents hold. 77% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Tuskegee. The jobs ↓
Nearly all the work in Tuskegee is services
90% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Tuskegee are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Alabama worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Why Tuskegee gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Tuskegee is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #169 of 187 in Alabama. Job access by car holds Tuskegee’s grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($38,000, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Tuskegee could be anywhere from D− to D.
The daily flow of workers through Tuskegee
On a workday 2,249 residents head out to work, 697 work right here, and 2,270 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 (1.01 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Tuskegee
2,967 jobs are based in Tuskegee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tuskegee, 2013 → 2023: 3,548 → 2,967. 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 Tuskegee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 20 minutes to work from Tuskegee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tuskegee workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,102 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.
Out of Tuskegee to work: where people go
Where Tuskegee clocks in
13% of workers
12% of workers
6% 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.
Half of Tuskegee commutes less than 24 miles
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Few in Tuskegee walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tuskegee is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #17 of 187 in Alabama. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 18.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,346 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). 13.6% of Tuskegee households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Tuskegee’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Tuskegee compares with U.S. towns of 6,100 to 11,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 147 | Meadowbrook AL | 9,117 | $142K | 5.5% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 394 | Brook Highland AL | 8,146 | $80K | 4.6% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 397 | Margaret AL | 7,149 | $102K | 3.7% | 1.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,817 | Clarkston WA | 7,189 | $54K | 20.7% | 9.6% | 22% | D |
| 2,818 | Southeast Arcadia FL | 7,555 | $60K | 26.4% | 12.4% | 3% | D |
| 2,819 | Tuskegee AL | 8,644 | $38K | 29.0% | 10.8% | 24% | D |
| 2,820 | Eunice LA | 9,035 | $35K | 33.2% | 8.6% | 27% | D |
| 2,821 | Piñon Hills CA | 7,065 | $68K | 18.6% | 19.4% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,893 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Tuskegee, 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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Tuskegee: questions
What is the median household income in Tuskegee?
$38,000 (±$6,995) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tuskegee?
29.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tuskegee?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tuskegee work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Auburn (13%, 17 mi), Montgomery (12%, 34 mi), Opelika (6%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tuskegee walkable?
Tuskegee is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 18% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tuskegee without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tuskegee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tuskegee
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.