Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Sparks earn less than those in 96% of U.S. towns
27.6% of residents live below the poverty line (Georgia 13.4%). Sparks grades D− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. For 6% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for Georgia as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Sparks
Sparks is a place people come home to
There are 75 jobs based in Sparks, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Sparks has about 1,400 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Sparks and Adel trade workers both ways
Adel is the top workplace for Sparks residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Sparks come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Sparks are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 28 across Georgia. That’s about 77 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 739 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Sparks’ grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Sparks is better than 3% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Sparks’ grade up (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($39,191, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Sparks’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, Sparks could be anywhere from D− to D.
Sparks quiets down on a workday
On a workday 736 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 72 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Sparks on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.10 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
20% of working residents work in Adel
Where Sparks clocks in
20% of workers
12% of workers
6% 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.
Each way, about 18 minutes from Sparks
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sparks workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 603 commuters (the 6% 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.
The kinds of work in Sparks
75 jobs are based in Sparks.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sparks, 2013 → 2023: 94 → 75. 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 Sparks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Sparks’ commute, mile by mile
About 22% 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 Sparks gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sparks is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 4.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 643 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). 10.3% of Sparks households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sparks’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Sparks compares with U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 109 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 188 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,859 | La Luz NM | 1,797 | $47K | 15.0% | 26.4% | 4% | D− |
| 4,860 | Augusta AR | 1,813 | $51K | 28.7% | 4.2% | 21% | D− |
| 4,861 | Sparks GA | 2,098 | $39K | 27.6% | 2.9% | <1% | D− |
| 4,862 | Louisa KY | 2,520 | $40K | 22.3% | 11.1% | 34% | D− |
| 4,863 | Mountain View MO | 2,661 | $39K | 29.4% | 6.2% | 23% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Sparks, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
20% of Sparks works in a town next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Adel. Darker towns draw more of Sparks’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 Sparks: questions
What is the median household income in Sparks?
$39,191 (±$16,441) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sparks?
27.6%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sparks?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sparks work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Adel (20%, 3 mi), Valdosta (12%, 24 mi), Tifton (6%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sparks walkable?
Sparks is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sparks 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 Sparks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sparks
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.