United Methodist Church · Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY 2.5Household incomes in Jasper are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, next to 16% for Florida as a whole. Poverty touches 34.1% of residents; Florida has 12.6%. Jasper grades D− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Jasper
A big share show a job far from home
56% 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 Jasper are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 28 across Florida. That’s about 92 hours a year less on the road than the typical Florida worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Jasper than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Jasper fell from 1,056 in 2013 to 601 in 2023, −43%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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 842 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Jasper earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Jasper is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #638 of 638 in Florida. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Jasper’s grade.
Unemployment (7.2%) is left out: Jasper’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Jasper could be anywhere from D− to D.
The distance from Jasper to work
About 56% 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.
About 16 minutes to work from Jasper
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jasper workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 220 commuters (the 5% 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 kinds of work in Jasper
601 jobs are based in Jasper.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jasper, 2013 → 2023: 1,056 → 601. 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 Jasper’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Jasper on a workday
On a workday 783 residents head out to work, 59 work right here, and 542 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.
0.71 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.
The places Jasper commutes to
Where Jasper clocks in
5% of workers
5% 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.
For most of Jasper, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jasper is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns, #622 of 638 in Florida. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 232 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). 14.2% of Jasper households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Jasper’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,600, and where Jasper sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Bay Hill FL | 4,512 | $128K | 0.7% | 1.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Geneva FL | 3,441 | $133K | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Windermere FL | 3,344 | $178K | 1.3% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,364 | Boron CA | 2,698 | $53K | 35.5% | 19.5% | 25% | D− |
| 4,365 | Fayette AL | 4,060 | $36K | 42.0% | 17.7% | 29% | D− |
| 4,366 | Jasper FL | 3,444 | $50K | 34.1% | 7.2% | 7% | D− |
| 4,367 | Gouverneur NY | 3,560 | $36K | 27.3% | 12.0% | 24% | D− |
| 4,368 | Welch WV | 3,389 | $33K | 28.2% | 0.0% | 28% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,402 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Jasper, 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 Jasper: questions
What is the median household income in Jasper?
$49,500 (±$20,376) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jasper?
34.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jasper?
16 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jasper work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville (5%, 78 mi), Gainesville (5%, 68 mi), Live Oak (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jasper walkable?
Jasper is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jasper without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jasper, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jasper
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.