Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0Ray City has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Household incomes here are lower than in 80% of U.S. towns. There are 82 jobs in Ray City, and 363 of its residents work somewhere. Ray City grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ray City, in a few figures
Ray City is a place people come home to
There are 82 jobs based in Ray City, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Ray City has about 850 people in it, 25% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Ray City are quick
The average trip to work takes 23 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 38 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 363 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Ray City
On income, poverty and job access, Ray City is better than 10% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Ray City’s grade.
Unemployment (4.8%) is left out: Ray City’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ray City could be anywhere from D− to C+.
A workday in Ray City: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 357 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 76 people come in from elsewhere.
About 850 people are in Ray City on a workday afternoon, 25% 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 2024, primary jobs.
From Ray City, about 23 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ray City workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 314 commuters (the 9% 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.
23% of working residents work in Valdosta
Where Ray City clocks in
23% of workers
15% of workers
3% 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 Ray City
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ray City, 2014 → 2024: 48 → 82. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ray City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Ray City
About 24% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most trips from Ray City start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ray City is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 3.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 344 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). 2.6% of Ray City households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ray City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ray City places 3,048th of 3,771 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 111 | Winterville GA | 1,203 | $111K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Clermont GA | 1,165 | $136K | 4.7% | 3.1% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 510 | Robins AFB GA | 1,193 | $107K | 5.9% | 9.9% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,046 | Funny River AK | 1,081 | $68K | 16.7% | 0.0% | — | D |
| 3,047 | Breckinridge Center KY | 1,467 | $64K | 51.8% | 3.7% | 4% | D |
| 3,048 | Ray City GA | 1,132 | $56K | 18.6% | 4.8% | 2% | D |
| 3,049 | Toledo IL | 1,140 | $56K | 18.1% | 1.0% | 6% | D |
| 3,050 | Glasgow MO | 1,080 | $50K | 11.9% | 3.1% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Ray City, 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 2024, 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 Ray City: questions
What is the median household income in Ray City?
$56,023 (±$16,344) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ray City?
18.6%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ray City?
23 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ray City work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Valdosta (23%, 16 mi), Nashville (15%, 10 mi), Lakeland (3%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Ray City walkable?
Ray City is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.4 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ray City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ray City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ray City
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.