With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Mount Airy works elsewhere
Home is the office for 6% of workers (Georgia 16%). 81 jobs are based in Mount Airy; 625 of its residents have a job. Mount Airy grades B− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Mount Airy in brief
Why Mount Airy gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Mount Airy is better than 45% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Mount Airy’s grade up ($87,868, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Mount Airy’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mount Airy could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Who leaves Mount Airy for work, and who comes in
On a workday 623 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 79 people come in from elsewhere.
About 970 people are in Mount Airy on a workday afternoon, 36% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Cornelia
Where Mount Airy clocks in
11% 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.
The kinds of work in Mount Airy
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Airy, 2013 → 2023: 62 → 81. 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 Mount Airy’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Mount Airy: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Airy workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 603 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.
Miles to work from Mount Airy
About 27% 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.
Most trips from Mount Airy start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Airy is more walkable than 12% 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 638 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). 0.9% of Mount Airy households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Airy’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,397 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000, Mount Airy comes 2,189th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 179 | Winterville GA | 1,203 | $111K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 368 | Cataula GA | 1,522 | $124K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,187 | Palmyra Township PA | 1,257 | $72K | 4.7% | 5.7% | 4% | B− |
| 2,188 | Cannonsburg KY | 1,129 | $76K | 11.4% | 10.3% | 2% | B− |
| 2,189 | Mount Airy GA | 1,510 | $88K | 14.1% | 1.5% | <1% | B− |
| 2,190 | Portage Township OH | 1,202 | $85K | 11.9% | 2.4% | 10% | B− |
| 2,191 | Clay Township OH | 1,901 | $61K | 11.8% | 1.9% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Mount Airy, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Work next door: 12% of Mount Airy’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mount Airy workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Airy | – | B− | D | 25 min | $87,868 |
| Cornelia | 12% | C | B+ | 27 min | $39,775 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Cornelia. Darker towns draw more of Mount Airy’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 Mount Airy: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Airy?
$87,868 (±$16,032) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Airy?
14.1%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Airy?
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 Mount Airy work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cornelia (12%, 2 mi), Gainesville (11%, 25 mi), Baldwin (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Airy walkable?
Mount Airy is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Airy without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Airy, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Airy
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.