Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Gretna earn less than those in 98% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for <1% of workers, next to 16% for Florida as a whole. The poverty rate is 33.5%, where Florida as a whole has 12.6%. For jobs and income Gretna is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (D).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Gretna in brief
Gretna is a place people come home to
There are 57 jobs based in Gretna, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Gretna has about 890 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
38% of Gretna works in Tallahassee
175 working residents, 38%, have their main job in Tallahassee, 29 miles away. That’s 38 times as many as work in Gretna itself. The commute map ↓
Few Gretna workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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; with 461 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Gretna’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Gretna is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Gretna’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Gretna’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Gretna stays D−.
Who works in Gretna, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 457 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 53 people come in from elsewhere.
About 890 people are in Gretna on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer than live here.
0.12 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
38% of working residents work in Tallahassee
Where Gretna clocks in
38% 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.
About 32 minutes each way for Gretna’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gretna workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 462 commuters (the <1% 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.
In Gretna, 47% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
57 jobs are based in Gretna.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gretna, 2013 → 2023: 52 → 57. 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 Gretna’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Gretna’s workers travel
About 19% 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 Gretna, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 463 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). 11.9% of Gretna households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gretna’s commuters take a bus or train.
Gretna and other U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Fisher Island FL | 1,026 | $250K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Golden Beach FL | 1,029 | $236K | 7.1% | 2.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 139 | Belleair Beach FL | 1,581 | $164K | 5.9% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,752 | Lake Kathryn FL | 1,024 | $50K | 29.5% | 3.4% | 0% | D− |
| 4,753 | Flomaton AL | 1,440 | $43K | 31.0% | 7.1% | 7% | D− |
| 4,754 | Gretna FL | 1,296 | $36K | 33.5% | 3.7% | 1% | D− |
| 4,755 | Jonesville LA | 1,531 | $44K | 34.3% | 6.4% | 23% | D− |
| 4,756 | Steelville MO | 1,447 | $32K | 34.8% | 4.3% | 12% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Gretna, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
The towns around Gretna
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gretna workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gretna | – | D− | D | 32 min | $35,903 |
| Greensboro | under 1% | — | — | 27 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Greensboro: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Gretna’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Gretna: questions
What is the median household income in Gretna?
$35,903 (±$14,063) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gretna?
33.5%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gretna?
32 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gretna work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tallahassee (38%, 29 mi), Quincy (12%, 8 mi), Chattahoochee (6%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gretna walkable?
Gretna is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gretna without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gretna, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gretna
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.