Loudermilk Boarding House · Photo: MRX_Rotary · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Cornelia earn less than those in 96% of U.S. towns
30.3% of residents are in poverty (Georgia 13.4%). Cornelia grades C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Home is the office for 7% of workers (Georgia 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Cornelia in brief
Cornelia is where the jobs are
Cornelia has 4,177 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 7,900 people are in town, 44% more than the 5,500 who live here. Day and night ↓
Cornelia makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Cornelia are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Cornelia residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 34%. The jobs ↓
Cornelia’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cornelia is Gainesville, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (166) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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.
Cornelia’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cornelia is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #159 of 263 in Georgia. Unemployment holds Cornelia’s grade up (2.2%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cornelia could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Who leaves Cornelia for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,516 residents head out to work, 252 work right here, and 3,925 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,900 people are in Cornelia on a workday afternoon, 44% more than live here.
2.4 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
42% of the jobs in Cornelia make or build things
4,177 jobs are based in Cornelia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cornelia, 2013 → 2023: 4,209 → 4,177. 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 Cornelia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Cornelia, by distance
About 26% 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.
The daily trip into Cornelia
Where Cornelia clocks in
9% 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 trip to work from Cornelia: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cornelia workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,909 commuters (the 7% 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.
Few in Cornelia walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cornelia is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #86 of 263 in Georgia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 2,052 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). 13.7% of Cornelia households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cornelia’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cornelia places 2,707th of 3,612 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 162 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 409 | Temple GA | 6,564 | $91K | 2.6% | 1.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,705 | Cambria CA | 5,978 | $99K | 10.5% | 8.3% | 35% | C |
| 2,706 | Utqiaġvik AK | 4,640 | $115K | 11.0% | 9.0% | — | C |
| 2,707 | Cornelia GA | 5,459 | $40K | 30.3% | 2.2% | 14% | C |
| 2,708 | Grove OK | 7,399 | $59K | 18.1% | 2.1% | 27% | C |
| 2,709 | Clintonville WI | 4,499 | $53K | 16.7% | 3.3% | 29% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,612 | 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 Cornelia, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Next door to Cornelia
The biggest share goes to Baldwin (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cornelia workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornelia | – | C | B+ | 27 min | $39,775 |
| Baldwin | 5% | B− | C+ | 23 min | $59,242 |
| Mount Airy | under 2% | B− | D | 25 min | $87,868 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cornelia’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 Cornelia: questions
What is the median household income in Cornelia?
$39,775 (±$16,688) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cornelia?
30.3%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cornelia?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cornelia work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Gainesville (9%, 23 mi), Baldwin (5%, 1 mi), Clarkesville (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cornelia walkable?
Cornelia is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cornelia without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cornelia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cornelia
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.