Chickamauga Lodge No. 221, Free and Accepted Masons, Prince Hall Affiliate · Photo: Andrew Jameson · CC BY-SA 3.0Chickamauga has lower unemployment (1.7%) than 88% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Chickamauga A−; getting around on foot earns it C. Only 5% stay in Chickamauga for work; outside it, Chattanooga is the main destination (31%, 13 miles). Measured by household income, Chickamauga is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Chickamauga and work: the main findings
Chickamauga trades workers with the towns around it
Chickamauga has about as many jobs (1,042) as working residents (1,161), but they are mostly different people: 1,099 residents leave for work each day while 980 people come in. Only 6% of the jobs in Chickamauga are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Chickamauga workers cross into Tennessee
35% of Chickamauga workers work outside Georgia, most of them in Tennessee, the Census survey finds. The commute map ↓
31% of Chickamauga works in Chattanooga
360 working residents, 31%, have their main job in Chattanooga, TN, 13 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Chickamauga itself. The commute map ↓
Chickamauga makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Chickamauga are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Chickamauga residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. 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.
Why Chickamauga gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Chickamauga is better than 78% of U.S. towns, #37 of 263 in Georgia. Unemployment holds Chickamauga’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Chickamauga could be anywhere from B− to A.
The daily commute in and out of Chickamauga
On a workday 1,099 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 980 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.
Where the trip to work from Chickamauga ends
Where Chickamauga clocks in
31% 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.
37% of the jobs in Chickamauga make or build things
1,042 jobs are based in Chickamauga.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chickamauga, 2013 → 2023: 974 → 1,042. 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 Chickamauga’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 25 minutes in Chickamauga
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chickamauga workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,288 commuters (the 21% 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.
Chickamauga’s commute, mile by mile
About 18% 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.
Driving is how Chickamauga gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.3% of 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 1,638 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). 5.1% of Chickamauga households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chickamauga’s commuters take a bus or train.
Chickamauga places 884th of 4,771 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 259 | Ball Ground GA | 3,470 | $118K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 336 | Chattahoochee Hills GA | 3,524 | $112K | 1.1% | 3.8% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 882 | Harrison Township IN | 3,531 | $83K | 6.7% | 1.4% | 7% | A− |
| 883 | Alva FL | 3,389 | $86K | 5.4% | 0.0% | 7% | A− |
| 884 | Chickamauga GA | 3,017 | $93K | 4.8% | 1.7% | 5% | A− |
| 885 | Pierson Township MI | 3,516 | $86K | 7.2% | 1.5% | 3% | A− |
| 886 | St. Wendel Township MN | 2,210 | $105K | 7.4% | 0.9% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,771 | 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 Chickamauga, 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 Chickamauga: questions
What is the median household income in Chickamauga?
$92,532 (±$33,617) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chickamauga?
4.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chickamauga?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chickamauga work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chattanooga (31%, 13 mi), LaFayette (6%, 12 mi), Fort Oglethorpe (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chickamauga walkable?
Chickamauga is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chickamauga without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chickamauga, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chickamauga
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.