Photo: Tamparitus · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Ellijay earn less than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. The poverty rate is 26.2%, next to 13.4% for Georgia as a whole. Jobs and income earn Ellijay D−; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Ellijay in brief
Ellijay has far more jobs than workers
Ellijay has 2,499 jobs, 3.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,900 people are in town, 93% more than the 2,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Ellijay makes and builds things
39% of the jobs based in Ellijay are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ellijay residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. 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; with 637 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Ellijay
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ellijay’s grade.
Unemployment (6.3%) is left out: Ellijay’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ellijay could be anywhere from D− to C−.
A workday in Ellijay: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 516 residents head out to work, 121 work right here, and 2,378 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,900 people are in Ellijay on a workday afternoon, 93% more than live here.
3.9 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.
39% of the jobs in Ellijay make or build things
2,499 jobs are based in Ellijay.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ellijay, 2013 → 2023: 3,123 → 2,499. 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 Ellijay’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting in to Ellijay: where workers come from
Where Ellijay clocks in
4% 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.
Getting to work from Ellijay takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ellijay workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 613 commuters (the 5% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Ellijay
About 25% 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.
In Ellijay, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ellijay is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 643 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). 18.3% of Ellijay households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ellijay’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ellijay compares with U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Berkeley Lake GA | 2,034 | $166K | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 200 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,089 | Cove Creek NC | 1,629 | $53K | 22.6% | 1.0% | 2% | D− |
| 5,090 | Alturas CA | 2,634 | $60K | 18.0% | 11.9% | 56% | D− |
| 5,091 | Ellijay GA | 2,008 | $48K | 26.2% | 6.3% | 19% | D− |
| 5,092 | Winchester IL | 1,502 | $48K | 21.2% | 5.1% | 17% | D− |
| 5,093 | Bridgeport IL | 1,652 | $53K | 23.7% | 8.4% | 6% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Ellijay, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Around Ellijay: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to East Ellijay (6%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ellijay workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellijay | – | D− | C− | 24 min | $48,136 |
| East Ellijay | 6% | D− | — | 23 min | $29,125 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ellijay’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 Ellijay: questions
What is the median household income in Ellijay?
$48,136 (±$14,607) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ellijay?
26.2%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ellijay?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ellijay work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are East Ellijay (6%, 2 mi), Gainesville (4%, 46 mi), Jasper (2%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ellijay walkable?
Ellijay is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ellijay without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ellijay, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ellijay
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.