Photo: Robbie Honerkamp · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Blakely earn less than those in 88% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, against 16% across Georgia. Poverty touches 26.8% of residents, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%. Jobs and income earn Blakely D; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Blakely at work: what stands out
Blakely trades workers with the towns around it
Blakely has about as many jobs (1,811) as working residents (2,012), but they are mostly different people: 1,527 residents leave for work each day while 1,326 people come in. Only 27% of the jobs in Blakely are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Blakely are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Blakely workers earn over $40,000 a year
38% of Blakely’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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.
Why Blakely gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Blakely is better than 9% of U.S. towns, #219 of 263 in Georgia. Unemployment holds Blakely’s grade up (4.2%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Blakely could be anywhere from D− to C.
Blakely by day and by night
On a workday 1,527 residents head out to work, 485 work right here, and 1,326 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.90 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.
Each way, about 18 minutes from Blakely
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Blakely workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,905 commuters (the 5% 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.
Inside Blakely’s 1,811 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Blakely, 2013 → 2023: 2,208 → 1,811. 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 Blakely’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Blakely
About 34% 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.
7% of working residents work in Dothan
Where Blakely clocks in
7% 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.
For most of Blakely, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Blakely is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns, #239 of 263 in Georgia. Both inputs place Blakely near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,999 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). 10.4% of Blakely households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Blakely’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Blakely compares with U.S. towns of 3,600 to 7,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 166 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 414 | Temple GA | 6,564 | $91K | 2.6% | 1.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,439 | Piney AR | 4,458 | $51K | 28.5% | 9.2% | 7% | D |
| 3,440 | Luray VA | 4,823 | $50K | 12.3% | 9.4% | 26% | D |
| 3,441 | Blakely GA | 5,156 | $50K | 26.8% | 4.2% | 24% | D |
| 3,442 | Wayne NE | 6,338 | $54K | 19.9% | 6.5% | 51% | D |
| 3,443 | Little Falls NY | 4,481 | $54K | 24.3% | 7.6% | 18% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,696 | 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 Blakely, 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 Blakely: questions
What is the median household income in Blakely?
$49,821 (±$15,140) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Blakely?
26.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Blakely?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Blakely work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dothan (7%, 30 mi), Colquitt (5%, 18 mi), Albany (4%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Blakely walkable?
Blakely is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Blakely without a car?
0% 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 Blakely, from the people who make the trip.
More of Blakely
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.