Photo: Calvin Beale · Public domainFew U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Alamo’s
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 45.6% of residents are in poverty, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%. For jobs and income Alamo is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (C−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Inside Alamo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Alamo is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #259 of 263 in Georgia. Job access by car holds Alamo’s grade up (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($18,451, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (16.0%) is left out: Alamo’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, Alamo stays D−.
A workday in Alamo: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 147 residents head out to work, 14 work right here, and 695 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,900 people are in Alamo on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
4.4 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.
Where the people who work in Alamo live
Where Alamo clocks in
10% of workers
8% 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.
Most jobs in Alamo are in services
709 jobs are based in Alamo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alamo, 2013 → 2023: 774 → 709. 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 Alamo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Alamo: about 25 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alamo workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 398 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% 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.
How far it is to work from Alamo
About 44% 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 Alamo, the car does most of the work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 398 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). 18.8% of Alamo households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Alamo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Alamo next to U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 263 | Ball Ground GA | 3,470 | $118K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 340 | Chattahoochee Hills GA | 3,524 | $112K | 1.1% | 3.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,216 | Chinle AZ | 4,147 | $53K | 28.4% | 12.0% | 23% | D− |
| 4,217 | Horseshoe Bend AR | 2,623 | $46K | 26.2% | 10.1% | 9% | D− |
| 4,218 | Alamo GA | 3,362 | $18K | 45.6% | 16.0% | 9% | D− |
| 4,219 | Abbeville GA | 2,819 | $42K | 41.7% | 9.8% | 8% | D− |
| 4,220 | Ferriday LA | 2,984 | $28K | 55.0% | 21.4% | 15% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,269 | 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 Alamo, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
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 Alamo: questions
What is the median household income in Alamo?
$18,451 (±$10,572) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alamo?
45.6%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Alamo?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alamo work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are McRae-Helena (10%, 9 mi), Vidalia (8%, 22 mi), Dublin (3%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Alamo walkable?
Alamo is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Alamo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 19% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alamo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alamo
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.