Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0Darien’s household incomes are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 15% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B−: more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 29 minutes each way (Georgia 28, U.S. 26). Only 7% work in Darien; the top destination outside it is Brunswick (13%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Darien
What’s behind Darien’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Darien is better than 15% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Darien’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Darien’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Darien could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Half of Darien commutes less than 19 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 518 residents head out to work, 41 work right here, and 637 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 (1.21 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.
13% of working residents work in Brunswick
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Darien clocks in
13% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
678 jobs are based in Darien. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Darien’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Darien, 2013 → 2023: 648 → 678. 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.
About 29 minutes each way, about the GA average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Darien workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 578 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Most trips from Darien start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Darien is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Darien 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 637 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). 4.8% of Darien households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Darien’s commuters take a bus or train.
Darien is 4,143rd of 5,343 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Darien, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Berkeley Lake GA | 2,034 | $166K | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 118 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 191 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,141 | Dunkard Township PA | 2,047 | $57K | 12.9% | 6.0% | 5% | D |
| 4,142 | Slater-Marietta SC | 2,381 | $42K | 29.9% | 4.9% | 3% | D |
| 4,143 | Darien GA | 1,807 | $57K | 14.4% | 3.7% | 7% | D |
| 4,144 | Winters TX | 2,263 | $49K | 19.0% | 3.7% | 20% | D |
| 4,145 | Mulberry AR | 1,635 | $50K | 16.4% | 0.0% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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.
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 Darien: questions
What is the median household income in Darien?
$57,000 (±$18,573) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Darien?
14.4%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Darien?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Darien work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brunswick (13%, 14 mi), Savannah (9%, 48 mi), St. Simons (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Darien walkable?
Darien is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Darien without a car?
2% 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 Darien, from the people who make the trip.
More of Darien
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.