Barberville Central High School · Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY 2.5Pierson has lower household incomes than 79% of U.S. towns
4% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Florida as a whole. Below the poverty line: 10.2% of residents, next to 12.6% across Florida. For jobs and income Pierson is better than 17% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Pierson, in brief
Pierson makes and builds things
56% of the jobs based in Pierson are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Pierson residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 29%. The jobs ↓
Pierson has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Pierson went from 607 in 2013 to 932 in 2023, +54%. The jobs ↓
Few Pierson workers work from home
Only 4% 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 702 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Pierson
The poverty rate holds Pierson’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 10% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Pierson’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pierson could be anywhere from D− to B−.
A place that makes things: 56% of Pierson’s jobs are in goods
932 jobs are based in Pierson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pierson, 2013 → 2023: 607 → 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 Pierson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 29 minutes in Pierson
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pierson workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 534 commuters (the 4% 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.
Who works in Pierson, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 636 residents head out to work, 66 work right here, and 866 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Pierson on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.33 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.
13% of working residents work in DeLand
Where Pierson clocks in
13% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
How far it is to work from Pierson
About 27% 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.
The commute in Pierson is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 556 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 49% 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). 2.5% of Pierson households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pierson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, Pierson ranks 4,235th of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Old Miakka FL | 1,818 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.0% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 125 | Lake Mary Jane FL | 1,792 | $146K | 0.0% | 3.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | Belleair Beach FL | 1,581 | $164K | 5.9% | 3.6% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,233 | Chesterville ME | 1,378 | $62K | 12.0% | 2.9% | 2% | C− |
| 4,234 | Porter ME | 1,652 | $60K | 9.8% | 3.1% | 6% | C− |
| 4,235 | Pierson FL | 1,555 | $57K | 10.2% | 0.0% | 9% | C− |
| 4,236 | Lamoni IA | 2,074 | $55K | 16.6% | 3.7% | 24% | C− |
| 4,237 | Billings MO | 1,182 | $47K | 20.3% | 5.6% | 4% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Pierson, 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 Pierson: questions
What is the median household income in Pierson?
$56,667 (±$13,584) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pierson?
10.2%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pierson?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pierson work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are DeLand (13%, 18 mi), Daytona Beach (5%, 22 mi), Orlando (4%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pierson walkable?
Pierson is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pierson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pierson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pierson
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.