Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Alston has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
2% of workers have no commute at all, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. 9 jobs are based in Alston; 59 of its residents have a job. Hardly any work in Alston itself; outside it, Vidalia draws the most (36%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Alston
On a workday 59 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 9 people come in from elsewhere.
About 130 people are in Alston on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
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 people from Alston work
Where Alston clocks in
36% of workers
5% 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.
What Alston’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
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 Alston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 17 minutes from Alston
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alston workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 52 commuters (the 2% 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.
The commute from Alston, by distance
About 25% 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.
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 Alston: questions
What is the median household income in Alston?
$61,563 (±$44,847) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alston?
22.9%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Alston?
17 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alston work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vidalia (36%, 10 mi), Uvalda (5%, 4 mi), Mount Vernon (3%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Alston without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alston
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.