Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Cordele has lower household incomes than 98% of U.S. towns
6% of workers work from home, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. Below the poverty line: 29.0% of residents; Georgia has 13.4%. The two grades for Cordele are D− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cordele: the figures worth knowing
Commutes from Cordele 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 ↓
Cordele draws workers from far and wide
The 5,473 jobs in Cordele are filled from a wide area. Cordele’s own residents hold 20% and the ten next-biggest home towns 12%; the other 68% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Cordele workers earn over $40,000 a year
38% of Cordele’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 21% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
How Cordele earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cordele is better than 4% of U.S. towns, #245 of 263 in Georgia. Job access by car holds Cordele’s grade up (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($33,800, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cordele could be anywhere from D− to C−.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of Georgia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cordele workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,704 commuters (the 6% 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.
7% of working residents work in Vienna
Where Cordele clocks in
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 work there is in Cordele: 5,473 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cordele, 2013 → 2023: 5,748 → 5,473. 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 Cordele’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cordele on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,562 residents head out to work, 1,108 work right here, and 4,365 people come in from elsewhere.
About 11,000 people are in Cordele on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 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.
How many miles Cordele commutes
About 30% 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.
For most of Cordele, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cordele is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #71 of 263 in Georgia. Both inputs place Cordele 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 3,926 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). 23.0% of Cordele households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cordele’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,800 to 13,000, and where Cordele sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Tyrone GA | 8,091 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 570 | Druid Hills GA | 8,169 | $130K | 9.3% | 3.6% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 575 | Whitemarsh Island GA | 6,886 | $102K | 3.9% | 3.3% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,724 | Winslow AZ | 8,464 | $58K | 29.8% | 8.9% | 42% | D− |
| 2,725 | La Junta CO | 6,864 | $52K | 27.4% | 7.9% | 39% | D− |
| 2,726 | Cordele GA | 9,652 | $34K | 29.0% | 7.5% | 30% | D− |
| 2,727 | Ripley TN | 7,499 | $37K | 30.7% | 8.2% | 27% | D− |
| 2,728 | Hernando FL | 9,299 | $43K | 21.1% | 10.6% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,751 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Cordele, 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 Cordele: questions
What is the median household income in Cordele?
$33,800 (±$6,784) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cordele?
29.0%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cordele?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cordele work?
30% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vienna (7%, 10 mi), Albany (5%, 35 mi), Macon-Bibb County (3%, 59 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cordele walkable?
Cordele is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cordele without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 23% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cordele, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cordele
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.