Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Jacksonville at work: jobs, income and the commute
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 31.0 in Miami. The two grades for Jacksonville are B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About two in three work in Jacksonville itself; outside it, Jacksonville Beach draws the most (2%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jacksonville and work: the main findings
Jacksonville’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Jacksonville is better than 50% of U.S. towns, #345 of 638 in Florida. Job access by car holds Jacksonville’s grade up (ahead of 83% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jacksonville stays B−.
How a workday changes Jacksonville
On a workday 129,626 residents head out to work, 296,294 work right here, and 235,799 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,124,000 people are in Jacksonville on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 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.
Where Jacksonville goes to work
Where Jacksonville clocks in
2% of workers
1% 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.
The kinds of work in Jacksonville
532,093 jobs are based in Jacksonville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jacksonville, 2013 → 2023: 437,911 → 532,093. 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 Jacksonville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Florida
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jacksonville workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 405,872 commuters (the 16% 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.
Miles to work from Jacksonville
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Jacksonville
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jacksonville is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #227 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.2% 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 480,531 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 54% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 16% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 69% 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). 7.3% of Jacksonville households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Jacksonville’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Jacksonville next to U.S. towns of 712,000 to 1,374,000: 11th of 15 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hempstead NY | 795,734 | $141K | 5.9% | 5.2% | 28% | A |
| 2 | San Jose CA | 989,814 | $146K | 8.1% | 5.1% | 36% | A− |
| 3 | Seattle WA | 784,777 | $124K | 9.9% | 4.6% | 60% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Nashville TN | 745,904 | $78K | 13.9% | 4.5% | 63% | B |
| 10 | Dallas TX | 1,329,491 | $71K | 16.7% | 4.9% | 43% | B− |
| 11 | Jacksonville FL | 1,017,689 | $70K | 14.5% | 4.6% | 70% | B− |
| 12 | Oklahoma City OK | 719,849 | $69K | 15.1% | 4.7% | 67% | B− |
| 13 | Louisville KY | 795,222 | $70K | 14.3% | 5.2% | 29% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Columbus OH | 938,396 | $66K | 18.1% | 5.1% | 52% | B− |
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 Jacksonville, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Next door to Jacksonville
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Jacksonville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville | – | B− | A− | 24 min | $69,872 |
| Fruit Cove | under 1% | A | C+ | 30 min | $141,863 |
| Atlantic Beach | 1% | A− | A | 26 min | $118,935 |
| Orange Park | 1% | B− | A | 28 min | $77,106 |
| Nassau Village-Ratliff | under 1% | C− | D− | 33 min | $62,417 |
| Jacksonville Beach | 2% | A+ | A | 24 min | $120,698 |
| Neptune Beach | under 1% | A+ | B | 22 min | $119,294 |
| Bellair-Meadowbrook Terrace | 1% | B | B | 26 min | $59,388 |
| Oakleaf Plantation | under 1% | A− | C− | 32 min | $108,543 |
| Fleming Island | under 1% | A | B | 30 min | $116,611 |
| Nocatee | under 1% | A− | B− | 28 min | $141,868 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Jacksonville Beach. Darker towns draw more of Jacksonville’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 Jacksonville: questions
What is the median household income in Jacksonville?
$69,872 (±$1,200) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jacksonville?
14.5%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jacksonville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jacksonville work?
70% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville Beach (2%, 17 mi), Orlando (1%, 130 mi), Tampa (1%, 171 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jacksonville walkable?
Jacksonville is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jacksonville without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 16% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jacksonville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jacksonville
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.