Photo: Rbrko · CC BY-SA 4.0College students make up 35% of Gainesville’s residents
More than half work in Gainesville itself; outside it, Jacksonville draws the most (5%, 61 miles). Jobs and income earn Gainesville C; getting around on foot earns it A+. Family incomes here are lower than in 73% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Gainesville at work: what stands out
Gainesville is where the jobs are
Gainesville has 92,423 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Gainesville are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 28 across Florida. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Florida worker. Time on the road ↓
Gainesville draws workers from far and wide
The 92,423 jobs in Gainesville are filled from a wide area. Gainesville’s own residents hold 27% and the ten next-biggest home towns 11%; the other 62% 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.
Jobs & income in Gainesville: the grade in detail
On family income, poverty and job access, Gainesville is better than 32% of U.S. towns, #481 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Gainesville’s grade up (ahead of 68% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.3%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (29% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 18.3%, against 30.8% for all residents. Unemployment (5.5%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($75,422), since student households pull the household median down ($46,195).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Gainesville could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Who commutes out of Gainesville, and who commutes in
On a workday 21,383 residents head out to work, 24,493 work right here, and 67,930 people come in from elsewhere.
About 195,000 people are in Gainesville on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
2.0 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 Gainesville: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gainesville workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 58,432 commuters (the 15% 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.
Where Gainesville’s workers come from
Where Gainesville clocks in
5% of workers
3% of workers
1% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Gainesville
92,423 jobs are based in Gainesville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gainesville, 2013 → 2023: 81,915 → 92,423. 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 Gainesville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Gainesville’s commute, mile by mile
About 28% 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.
Gainesville is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 68,536 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 92% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 42% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 19.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 98% 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). 10.8% of Gainesville households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 6% of Gainesville’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
How Gainesville ranks: 199th of 239 U.S. towns of 104,000 to 201,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carmel IN | 105,634 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 2 | Clay Township IN | 104,932 | $142K | 3.9% | 2.7% | 23% | A+ |
| 3 | Fishers IN | 104,812 | $130K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 14% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Riverview FL | 113,697 | $100K | 7.5% | 4.3% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 59 | Miramar FL | 142,570 | $89K | 8.5% | 4.5% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Coral Springs FL | 138,783 | $94K | 7.6% | 5.1% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 197 | McAllen TX | 150,640 | $62K | 20.0% | 6.0% | 37% | C |
| 198 | Lakewood Township NJ | 143,765 | $65K | 24.8% | 5.8% | 42% | C |
| 199 | Gainesville FL | 148,671 | $46K | 30.8% | 5.5% | 53% | C |
| 200 | Evansville IN | 116,176 | $53K | 18.4% | 5.1% | 60% | C |
| 201 | Palmdale CA | 161,845 | $82K | 15.7% | 8.3% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 239 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Gainesville, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Around Gainesville: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Alachua (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gainesville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gainesville | – | C | A+ | 19 min | $46,195 |
| Alachua | 3% | B+ | C | 24 min | $83,464 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Gainesville’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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. 35% 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 Gainesville: questions
What is the median household income in Gainesville?
$46,195 (±$2,205) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gainesville?
30.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 18.3%. Florida: 12.6%.
How long is the commute from Gainesville?
19 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gainesville work?
53% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville (5%, 61 mi), Alachua (3%, 11 mi), Tallahassee (1%, 126 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gainesville walkable?
Gainesville is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gainesville without a car?
6% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 42% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gainesville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gainesville
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.