Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Dawson has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
For jobs and income Dawson is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A). Measured by household income, Dawson is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 53.8%, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Dawson apart on work
Dawson trades workers with the towns around it
Dawson has about as many jobs (1,321) as working residents (1,548), but they are mostly different people: 1,248 residents leave for work each day while 1,021 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Dawson are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Dawson workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Dawson’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Dawson and Albany trade workers both ways
Albany is the top workplace for Dawson residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Dawson come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Dawson are quick
The average trip to work takes 23 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
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 Dawson earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Dawson’s grade up (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dawson could be anywhere from D− to C.
Who works in Dawson, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 1,248 residents head out to work, 300 work right here, and 1,021 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 (0.85 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.
The kinds of work in Dawson
1,321 jobs are based in Dawson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dawson, 2013 → 2023: 1,185 → 1,321. 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 Dawson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
20% of working residents work in Albany
Where Dawson clocks in
20% of workers
2% 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.
Time on the road from Dawson: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dawson workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,182 commuters (the 8% 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.
Miles to work from Dawson
About 28% 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.
Dawson is easy on foot, hard by bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,291 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). 22.5% of Dawson households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dawson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Dawson sits among U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 273 | Ball Ground GA | 3,470 | $118K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,905 | South Litchfield Township IL | 3,222 | $37K | 19.5% | 9.2% | 8% | D |
| 3,906 | Seal Township OH | 3,389 | $41K | 25.1% | 7.1% | 11% | D |
| 3,907 | Dawson GA | 4,131 | $29K | 53.8% | 6.0% | 19% | D |
| 3,908 | Glennville GA | 5,023 | $53K | 19.1% | 9.9% | 18% | D |
| 3,909 | Sidney NY | 3,588 | $50K | 21.0% | 9.6% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,112 | 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 Dawson, 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 Dawson: questions
What is the median household income in Dawson?
$28,533 (±$8,482) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dawson?
53.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dawson?
23 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dawson work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albany (20%, 21 mi), Vienna (3%, 44 mi), Camilla (2%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dawson walkable?
Dawson is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dawson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dawson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dawson
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.