Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home · Photo: Annalisa.frazier · CC BY-SA 3.0At 8.5%, unemployment in Augusta is higher than in 90% of U.S. towns
About half work in Augusta itself; outside it, Martinez draws the most (5%, 11 miles). The two grades for Augusta are C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Augusta is behind 80% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Augusta apart
Inside Augusta’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Augusta is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #182 of 263 in Georgia. Job access by car holds Augusta’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Augusta stays C−.
Time on the road from Augusta: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Augusta workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 83,322 commuters (the 9% 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.
Who commutes out of Augusta, and who commutes in
On a workday 37,110 residents head out to work, 34,389 work right here, and 58,253 people come in from elsewhere.
About 228,000 people are in Augusta on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
The places Augusta commutes to
Where Augusta clocks in
5% of workers
2% 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.
The kinds of work in Augusta
92,642 jobs are based in Augusta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Augusta, 2013 → 2023: 89,817 → 92,642. 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 Augusta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Augusta works
About 29% 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.
Few in Augusta walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Augusta is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #89 of 263 in Georgia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 91,666 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). 9.9% of Augusta households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Augusta’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Where Augusta sits among U.S. towns of 145,000 to 279,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| 3 | Olathe KS | 150,025 | $114K | 5.6% | 2.7% | 26% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Columbus GA | 202,171 | $58K | 19.0% | 6.3% | 59% | C |
| 120 | Savannah GA | 149,440 | $57K | 19.7% | 7.2% | 51% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 127 | Rochester NY | 206,108 | $47K | 27.8% | 7.9% | 42% | C− |
| 128 | Brownsville TX | 192,957 | $52K | 23.7% | 6.2% | 54% | C− |
| 129 | Augusta GA | 206,559 | $56K | 20.0% | 8.5% | 48% | C− |
| 130 | Killeen TX | 161,883 | $61K | 17.4% | 9.7% | 22% | C− |
| 131 | Toledo OH | 263,423 | $50K | 24.3% | 7.7% | 44% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 134 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Augusta, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Around Augusta: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Martinez. Darker towns draw more of Augusta’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Augusta: questions
What is the median household income in Augusta?
$55,637 (±$2,844) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Augusta?
20.0%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Augusta?
21 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Augusta work?
48% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Martinez (5%, 11 mi), Evans (3%, 15 mi), Atlanta (2%, 138 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Augusta walkable?
Augusta is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Augusta without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Augusta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Augusta
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.