Ball Ground Historic District · Photo: Thomson200 · CC0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Ball Ground works elsewhere
Ball Ground has 575 jobs, against 1,080 working residents. The two grades for Ball Ground are A for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Measured by household income, Ball Ground is ahead of 87% 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 Ball Ground apart
Ball Ground makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Ball Ground are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ball Ground residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 18%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
32% of the jobs based in Ball Ground are held by workers 29 or younger, against 24% of Ball Ground’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
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.
Where Ball Ground’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ball Ground is better than 94% of U.S. towns, #8 of 263 in Georgia. The poverty rate is its strongest input (1.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ball Ground could be anywhere from A− to A+.
Making and building: 42% of jobs based in Ball Ground
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ball Ground, 2013 → 2023: 287 → 575. 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 Ball Ground’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Ball Ground on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,056 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 551 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Ball Ground on a workday afternoon, 15% 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.
11% of working residents work in Canton
Where Ball Ground clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
A commute of about 29 minutes in Ball Ground
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ball Ground workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,485 commuters (the 11% 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.
Ball Ground’s commute, mile by mile
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.
For most of Ball Ground, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ball Ground is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns, #242 of 263 in Georgia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Georgia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,660 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). 1.1% of Ball Ground households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ball Ground’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ball Ground places 284th of 4,535 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 2,400 to 4,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Caernarvon Township PA | 4,600 | $119K | 6.5% | 0.6% | 9% | A |
| 283 | Fulton WI | 3,715 | $101K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 4% | A |
| 284 | Ball Ground GA | 3,470 | $118K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A |
| 285 | Thomaston NY | 2,776 | $158K | 7.4% | 3.2% | 1% | A |
| 286 | Sherborn MA | 4,455 | $250K | 3.1% | 4.6% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 367 | Chattahoochee Hills GA | 3,524 | $112K | 1.1% | 3.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 569 | Tybee Island GA | 3,156 | $120K | 7.7% | 1.2% | 25% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,535 | 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 Ball Ground, 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 Ball Ground: questions
What is the median household income in Ball Ground?
$117,829 (±$7,875) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ball Ground?
1.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ball Ground?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ball Ground work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Canton (11%, 10 mi), Atlanta (7%, 40 mi), Alpharetta (4%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ball Ground walkable?
Ball Ground is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ball Ground without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ball Ground, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ball Ground
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.