Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Pine Mountain top those of 69% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 18.5%, against 13.4% across Georgia. Pine Mountain grades C+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 5% work in Pine Mountain; the top destination outside it is Columbus (15%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Pine Mountain apart on work
Pine Mountain’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Pine Mountain is Columbus, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (73) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Pine Mountain
55% of Pine Mountain residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 26% of the jobs based in Pine Mountain pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 95% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Many jobs in Pine Mountain pay little
31% of the jobs based in Pine Mountain pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. 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; with 480 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Pine Mountain
On income, poverty and job access, Pine Mountain is better than 38% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Pine Mountain’s grade up ($91,250, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (1.2%) is left out: Pine Mountain’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, Pine Mountain could be anywhere from D to A.
Miles to work from Pine Mountain
About 30% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
642 jobs are based in Pine Mountain.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pine Mountain, 2013 → 2023: 262 → 642. 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 Pine Mountain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Pine Mountain, and who commutes in
On a workday 457 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 619 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Pine Mountain on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 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.
Where people from Pine Mountain work
Where Pine Mountain clocks in
15% of workers
14% of workers
9% 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.
About 25 minutes to work from Pine Mountain
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pine Mountain workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 401 commuters (the 15% 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 Pine Mountain, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pine Mountain is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 470 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). 10.1% of Pine Mountain households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Pine Mountain’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Pine Mountain comes 2,544th 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 162 | Winterville GA | 1,203 | $111K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 332 | Cataula GA | 1,522 | $124K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 335 | Clermont GA | 1,165 | $136K | 4.7% | 3.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,542 | Kenwood Estates FL | 1,263 | $66K | 33.5% | 2.3% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,543 | Taft Southwest TX | 1,635 | $56K | 10.6% | 11.4% | 0% | C+ |
| 2,544 | Pine Mountain GA | 1,303 | $91K | 18.5% | 1.2% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,545 | Larimore ND | 1,359 | $88K | 8.3% | 2.5% | 12% | C+ |
| 2,546 | Rocky Ridge UT | 1,078 | $96K | 12.7% | 1.6% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Pine Mountain, 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 Pine Mountain: questions
What is the median household income in Pine Mountain?
$91,250 (±$43,768) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pine Mountain?
18.5%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pine Mountain?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pine Mountain work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbus (15%, 24 mi), LaGrange (14%, 16 mi), West Point (9%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pine Mountain walkable?
Pine Mountain is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pine Mountain without a car?
1% 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 Pine Mountain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pine Mountain
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.