Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Work, pay and getting to work in Forsyth
The two grades for Forsyth are C for jobs and income and D for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, next to 16% for Georgia as a whole. About one in ten work in Forsyth itself; outside it, Macon-Bibb County draws the most (15%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Forsyth, in brief
Forsyth is where the jobs are
Forsyth has 3,033 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Forsyth’s workers comes from Macon-Bibb County
278 of the people who work in Forsyth live in Macon-Bibb County, 21 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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 ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Forsyth’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Forsyth is better than 32% of U.S. towns, #147 of 263 in Georgia. Unemployment holds Forsyth’s grade up (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Forsyth could be anywhere from D to B+.
Who leaves Forsyth for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,584 residents head out to work, 208 work right here, and 2,825 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,200 people are in Forsyth on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.7 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.
The towns that send workers to Forsyth
Where Forsyth clocks in
15% of workers
4% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Forsyth
About 31% 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 kinds of work in Forsyth
3,033 jobs are based in Forsyth.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forsyth, 2013 → 2023: 2,893 → 3,033. 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 Forsyth’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way for Forsyth’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forsyth workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,900 commuters (the 6% 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.
In Forsyth, most people drive to work
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 2,028 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). 11.1% of Forsyth households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forsyth’s commuters take a bus or train.
Forsyth next to U.S. towns of 3,500 to 6,700: 2,634th of 3,692 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 157 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,632 | Fountain Hill PA | 4,835 | $64K | 18.6% | 7.4% | 5% | C |
| 2,633 | Timber Pines FL | 5,007 | $59K | 11.5% | 7.4% | 1% | C |
| 2,634 | Forsyth GA | 4,952 | $73K | 21.5% | 3.7% | 12% | C |
| 2,635 | Port Allen LA | 5,015 | $59K | 20.5% | 6.2% | 8% | C |
| 2,636 | Holdrege NE | 5,555 | $56K | 16.6% | 1.8% | 51% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,692 | 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 Forsyth, 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 Forsyth: questions
What is the median household income in Forsyth?
$73,250 (±$21,058) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forsyth?
21.5%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forsyth?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forsyth work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Macon-Bibb County (15%, 21 mi), Atlanta (4%, 57 mi), Griffin (2%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Forsyth walkable?
Forsyth is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forsyth without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forsyth, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forsyth
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.