Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Ave Maria are higher than in 79% of U.S. towns
Ave Maria grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. The poverty rate is 11.0% (Florida 12.6%). At home: 23% of workers have no commute at all (Florida 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ave Maria
Jobs in Ave Maria have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Ave Maria went from 701 in 2013 to 2,978 in 2023, +325%. The jobs ↓
Ave Maria workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 42 minutes each way, against 28 across Florida. Over a year that’s about 322 hours of commuting, 107 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Ave Maria makes and builds things
63% of the jobs based in Ave Maria are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ave Maria residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 19%. The jobs ↓
Ave Maria trades workers with the towns around it
Ave Maria has about as many jobs (2,978) as working residents (2,633), but they are mostly different people: 2,009 residents leave for work each day while 2,354 people come in. Only 21% of the jobs in Ave Maria are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Ave Maria’s commute
The biggest draw, Naples, gets only 6% of working residents, and 57% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Ave Maria residents fan out across the region. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Ave Maria
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ave Maria is better than 44% of U.S. towns, #388 of 638 in Florida. Household income holds Ave Maria’s grade up ($102,949, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.9%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ave Maria could be anywhere from C− to A.
Making and building: 63% of jobs based in Ave Maria
2,978 jobs are based in Ave Maria.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ave Maria, 2013 → 2023: 701 → 2,978. 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 Ave Maria’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 42 minutes each way for Ave Maria’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ave Maria workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,303 commuters (the 23% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Ave Maria
On a workday 2,009 residents head out to work, 624 work right here, and 2,354 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 (1.13 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.
6% of working residents work in Naples
Where Ave Maria clocks in
6% 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.
Half of Ave Maria commutes less than 23 miles
About 27% 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.
In Ave Maria, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ave Maria is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns, #309 of 638 in Florida. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,005 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 1.6% of Ave Maria households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ave Maria’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ave Maria is 1,877th of 2,956 U.S. towns of 5,800 to 11,100 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Southwest Ranches FL | 7,773 | $161K | 3.8% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 178 | Neptune Beach FL | 7,020 | $119K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 334 | Westlake FL | 9,042 | $132K | 3.2% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,875 | Kingston TN | 6,299 | $72K | 7.1% | 8.1% | 8% | C+ |
| 1,876 | Kirby TX | 8,211 | $56K | 13.5% | 5.1% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,877 | Ave Maria FL | 8,258 | $103K | 11.0% | 5.9% | 24% | C+ |
| 1,878 | Gresham Park GA | 6,935 | $71K | 19.5% | 5.8% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,879 | Kendallville IN | 10,371 | $59K | 12.4% | 3.3% | 25% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,956 | 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 Ave Maria, 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 Ave Maria: questions
What is the median household income in Ave Maria?
$102,949 (±$21,267) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ave Maria?
11.0%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ave Maria?
42 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ave Maria work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Naples (6%, 25 mi), Immokalee (3%, 7 mi), Fort Myers (3%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ave Maria walkable?
Ave Maria is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ave Maria without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ave Maria, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ave Maria
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.