Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Griffin trail those of 94% of U.S. towns
5% of workers have no commute at all, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. Poverty touches 25.2% of residents, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%. For jobs and income Griffin is better than 16% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Griffin: the gist
Griffin draws workers from far and wide
The 13,424 jobs in Griffin are filled from a wide area. Griffin’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 10%; the other 78% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
No single place dominates Griffin’s commute
The biggest draw, Atlanta, gets only 7% of working residents, and 64% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Griffin residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Griffin are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 46 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.
Income, poverty and work: Griffin’s grade explained
Job access by car holds Griffin’s grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($43,632, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Griffin could be anywhere from D to C.
7% of working residents work in Atlanta
Where Griffin clocks in
7% 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.
Commuting from Griffin: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Griffin workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,273 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.
Griffin fills up on a workday
On a workday 7,764 residents head out to work, 1,636 work right here, and 11,788 people come in from elsewhere.
About 28,000 people are in Griffin on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.43 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.
What the 13,424 jobs in Griffin are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Griffin, 2013 → 2023: 13,549 → 13,424. 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 Griffin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Griffin, by distance
About 17% 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.
Getting around Griffin: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of 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 9,787 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). 8.9% of Griffin households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Griffin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Griffin sits among U.S. towns of 17,000 to 32,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 117 | Holly Springs GA | 20,261 | $114K | 3.9% | 2.2% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 293 | Decatur GA | 25,276 | $139K | 6.2% | 4.3% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 300 | North Druid Hills GA | 17,997 | $103K | 11.1% | 1.5% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,498 | Kirksville MO | 17,863 | $50K | 28.2% | 4.0% | 49% | C− |
| 1,499 | Wasco CA | 26,525 | $52K | 18.4% | 7.0% | 17% | C− |
| 1,500 | Griffin GA | 23,896 | $44K | 25.2% | 6.3% | 17% | C− |
| 1,501 | Williamsport PA | 27,384 | $49K | 25.4% | 6.8% | 31% | C− |
| 1,502 | East St. Louis IL | 17,682 | $36K | 32.8% | 17.3% | 9% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,577 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Griffin, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Griffin and the towns next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Griffin workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Griffin | – | C− | B | 22 min | $43,632 |
| East Griffin | under 1% | D | D | 28 min | $45,938 |
| Experiment | under 1% | D | C− | 21 min | $33,333 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Griffin’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 Griffin: questions
What is the median household income in Griffin?
$43,632 (±$3,541) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Griffin?
25.2%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Griffin?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Griffin work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Atlanta (7%, 37 mi), Peachtree City (3%, 20 mi), McDonough (2%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Griffin walkable?
Griffin is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Griffin without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Griffin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Griffin
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.