Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Ocilla have lower incomes than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for <1% of workers, against 16% across Georgia. The poverty rate is 26.2%, next to 13.4% for Georgia as a whole. Ocilla grades C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ocilla
Few Ocilla workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 16% across Georgia. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Ocilla are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Georgia worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Ocilla workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Ocilla’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% 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.
What’s behind Ocilla’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ocilla is better than 26% of U.S. towns, #166 of 263 in Georgia. Unemployment holds Ocilla’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($41,277, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ocilla could be anywhere from C− to C+.
A commute of about 20 minutes in Ocilla
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ocilla workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,169 commuters (the <1% 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.
What the 1,549 jobs in Ocilla are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ocilla, 2013 → 2023: 1,376 → 1,549. 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 Ocilla’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Ocilla
On a workday 876 residents head out to work, 215 work right here, and 1,334 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,300 people are in Ocilla on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.42 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.
14% of working residents work in Fitzgerald
Where Ocilla clocks in
14% of workers
9% of workers
8% 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.
How far Ocilla’s workers travel
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.
Driving is how Ocilla gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ocilla is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns, #80 of 263 in Georgia. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,171 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). 9.7% of Ocilla households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ocilla’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ocilla next to U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,800: 3,398th of 4,703 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Berkeley Lake GA | 2,034 | $166K | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Avondale Estates GA | 3,543 | $124K | 6.3% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,396 | Sheldon NY | 2,336 | $71K | 11.8% | 7.3% | 7% | C |
| 3,397 | Bushnell FL | 3,157 | $53K | 13.4% | 3.6% | 11% | C |
| 3,398 | Ocilla GA | 2,837 | $41K | 26.2% | 0.0% | 20% | C |
| 3,399 | Lake Ozark MO | 2,247 | $74K | 18.6% | 4.3% | 10% | C |
| 3,400 | Paden City WV | 2,381 | $66K | 12.2% | 4.5% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,703 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Ocilla, 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 Ocilla: questions
What is the median household income in Ocilla?
$41,277 (±$12,271) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ocilla?
26.2%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ocilla?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ocilla work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fitzgerald (14%, 8 mi), Douglas (9%, 24 mi), Tifton (8%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ocilla walkable?
Ocilla is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ocilla without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ocilla, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ocilla
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.