Photo: Thomsonmg2000 · Public domainHouseholds in Apalachicola earn less than those in 86% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Apalachicola D; getting around on foot earns it B. Poverty touches 15.7% of residents, against 12.6% across Florida. Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers, where Florida as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Apalachicola in brief
A big share show a job far from home
40% 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 ↓
Commutes from Apalachicola are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 28 across Florida. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Florida worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Apalachicola workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Apalachicola’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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; with 879 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Apalachicola earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Apalachicola is better than 11% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Apalachicola’s grade up (5.0%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Apalachicola could be anywhere from D− to B−.
How far Apalachicola goes to work
About 40% 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.
How long Apalachicola spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Apalachicola workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 890 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% 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.
What the 1,295 jobs in Apalachicola are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Apalachicola, 2013 → 2023: 1,376 → 1,295. 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 Apalachicola’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Apalachicola, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 619 residents head out to work, 260 work right here, and 1,035 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,900 people are in Apalachicola on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 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.
10% of working residents work in St. George Island
Where Apalachicola clocks in
10% of workers
8% of workers
5% 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 commute in Apalachicola is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Apalachicola is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 966 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). 16.9% of Apalachicola households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Apalachicola’s commuters take a bus or train.
Apalachicola places 4,456th of 5,207 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Atlantis FL | 2,140 | $117K | 3.6% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Pelican Marsh FL | 2,617 | $143K | 2.7% | 1.5% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 127 | Old Miakka FL | 1,818 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,454 | West Salem Township PA | 3,177 | $55K | 13.3% | 18.3% | 5% | D |
| 4,455 | Middleport OH | 2,103 | $42K | 23.0% | 4.2% | 8% | D |
| 4,456 | Apalachicola FL | 2,473 | $52K | 15.7% | 5.0% | 30% | D |
| 4,457 | Christopher IL | 2,607 | $48K | 20.8% | 7.4% | 8% | D |
| 4,458 | Conrad MT | 2,393 | $48K | 17.6% | 4.3% | 42% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Apalachicola, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Apalachicola: questions
What is the median household income in Apalachicola?
$51,875 (±$25,964) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Apalachicola?
15.7%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Apalachicola?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Apalachicola work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. George Island (10%, 8 mi), Tallahassee (8%, 67 mi), Eastpoint (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Apalachicola walkable?
Apalachicola is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 9.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Apalachicola without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Apalachicola, from the people who make the trip.
More of Apalachicola
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.