Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Madison ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
Measured by household income, Madison is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 34.8% (Florida 12.6%). Madison grades C− for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Madison and work: the main findings
Madison’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Madison is Tallahassee, 50 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (90) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Madison is where the jobs are
Madison has 1,932 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Madison workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 39 minutes each way, against 28 across Florida. Over a year that’s about 299 hours of commuting, 84 more than the state’s typical worker. 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 886 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Madison
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Madison is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #585 of 638 in Florida. Unemployment holds Madison’s grade up (1.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($30,673, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madison could be anywhere from D to C−.
How far Madison’s workers travel
About 35% 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.
Madison by day and by night
On a workday 716 residents head out to work, 170 work right here, and 1,762 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Madison on a workday afternoon, 35% more than live here.
2.2 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.
From Madison, about 39 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madison workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,202 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.
Commuting in to Madison: where workers come from
Where Madison clocks in
10% of workers
4% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Madison
1,932 jobs are based in Madison.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madison, 2013 → 2023: 2,063 → 1,932. 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 Madison’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Good to walk, short on transit: Madison
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Madison is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #143 of 638 in Florida. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 8.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,215 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). 15.0% of Madison households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Madison’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Madison is 3,797th among 4,618 U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Geneva FL | 3,441 | $133K | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Windermere FL | 3,344 | $178K | 1.3% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Atlantis FL | 2,140 | $117K | 3.6% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,795 | Ester AK | 2,752 | $53K | 11.9% | 5.5% | — | C− |
| 3,796 | Valley Grande AL | 3,903 | $59K | 25.3% | 3.9% | 4% | C− |
| 3,797 | Madison FL | 2,988 | $31K | 34.8% | 1.2% | 19% | C− |
| 3,798 | Bloomingdale Township MI | 3,074 | $66K | 25.8% | 6.0% | 5% | C− |
| 3,799 | Liberty NC | 2,739 | $40K | 16.6% | 7.5% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Madison, 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 Madison: questions
What is the median household income in Madison?
$30,673 (±$12,939) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madison?
34.8%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madison?
39 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madison work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tallahassee (10%, 50 mi), Valdosta (4%, 27 mi), Jacksonville (3%, 105 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madison walkable?
Madison is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madison without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madison, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madison
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.