Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Richland earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
Jobs and income earn Richland D−; getting around on foot earns it C. Measured by household income, Richland is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 35.9% of residents live below the poverty line, where Georgia as a whole has 13.4%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Richland, in brief
Jobs in Richland have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Richland went from 328 in 2013 to 769 in 2023, +134%. The jobs ↓
Richland is where the jobs are
Richland has 769 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
41% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 372 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Richland
On income, poverty and job access, Richland is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Richland’s grade.
Unemployment (9.4%) is left out: Richland’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Richland stays D−.
Services make up most of the work in Richland
769 jobs are based in Richland.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Richland, 2013 → 2023: 328 → 769. 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 Richland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Richland by day
On a workday 345 residents head out to work, 27 work right here, and 742 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Richland on a workday afternoon, 28% more than live here.
2.1 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The distance from Richland to work
About 41% 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.
Commuting in to Richland: where workers come from
Where Richland clocks in
3% 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.
How long Richland spends getting to work: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Richland workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 454 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.
Most trips from Richland start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Richland is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 3.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 455 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). 25.1% of Richland households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Richland’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Richland compares with U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 107 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 181 | Winterville GA | 1,203 | $111K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 375 | Cataula GA | 1,522 | $124K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,837 | Fort Washakie WY | 1,219 | $37K | 32.3% | 19.3% | 32% | D− |
| 5,838 | Crescent City FL | 1,728 | $34K | 31.7% | 13.3% | 11% | D− |
| 5,839 | Richland GA | 1,394 | $25K | 35.9% | 9.4% | 7% | D− |
| 5,840 | Buena Vista GA | 1,583 | $29K | 35.9% | 1.9% | 16% | D− |
| 5,841 | Butler GA | 1,825 | $22K | 49.6% | 2.0% | 17% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Richland, 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 Richland: questions
What is the median household income in Richland?
$25,100 (±$19,772) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Richland?
35.9%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Richland?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Richland work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Webster County (8%, 7 mi), Columbus (3%, 32 mi), Albany (3%, 45 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Richland walkable?
Richland is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Richland without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 25% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Richland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Richland
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.