Charlton County Courthouse · Photo: Bubba73 (Jud McCranie) · CC BY-SA 3.0At 27.4%, unemployment in Folkston is among the highest of any U.S. town
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers; Georgia has 16%. Jobs and income earn Folkston D−; getting around on foot earns it D. Household incomes here are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Folkston
Folkston is where the jobs are
Folkston has 1,588 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Few Folkston workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 16% across Georgia. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
40% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Folkston workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Folkston’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% 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 the Jobs & income grade adds up in Folkston
All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Folkston’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Folkston could be anywhere from D− to D.
Folkston on a workday afternoon
On a workday 826 residents head out to work, 208 work right here, and 1,380 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,300 people are in Folkston on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
1.5 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.
About 25 minutes each way for Folkston’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Folkston workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,625 commuters (the 2% 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.
How far it is to work from Folkston
About 40% 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.
Jobs in Folkston: what the 1,588 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Folkston, 2013 → 2023: 1,348 → 1,588. 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 Folkston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Folkston
Where Folkston clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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.
For most of Folkston, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Folkston is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns, #256 of 263 in Georgia. 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 1,652 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). 12.2% of Folkston households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Folkston’s commuters take a bus or train.
Folkston next to U.S. towns of 3,300 to 6,400
| # | 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 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,822 | Walton NY | 5,134 | $49K | 25.3% | 9.9% | 27% | D− |
| 3,823 | Tiffin Township OH | 5,305 | $38K | 24.7% | 8.2% | 18% | D− |
| 3,824 | Folkston GA | 4,767 | $50K | 28.8% | 27.4% | 20% | D− |
| 3,825 | Ahoskie NC | 4,608 | $41K | 27.7% | 11.7% | 26% | D− |
| 3,826 | Henryetta OK | 5,620 | $45K | 30.3% | 10.8% | 20% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,867 | 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 Folkston, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
How Folkston compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Folkston workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Folkston | – | D− | D | 25 min | $50,116 |
| Homeland | 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Homeland: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Homeland. Darker towns draw more of Folkston’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 Folkston: questions
What is the median household income in Folkston?
$50,116 (±$12,880) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Folkston?
28.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Folkston?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Folkston work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jacksonville (7%, 40 mi), Waycross (4%, 33 mi), Kingsland (3%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Folkston walkable?
Folkston is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Folkston without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Folkston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Folkston
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.