Photo: Blastoids · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs and the daily commute in Sparta
Sparta grades C− for walkability. Home is the office for 0% of workers, where Georgia as a whole has 16%. Only 8% stay in Sparta for work; outside it, Milledgeville is the main destination (8%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Sparta at work: what stands out
Sparta workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 47 minutes each way, against 28 across Georgia. Over a year that’s about 360 hours of commuting, 146 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
45% 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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Sparta than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Sparta fell from 767 in 2013 to 384 in 2023, −50%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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 412 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
A commute of about 47 minutes in Sparta
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 15 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sparta workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 676 commuters (the 0% 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.
How many miles Sparta commutes
About 45% 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
384 jobs are based in Sparta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sparta, 2013 → 2023: 767 → 384. 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 Sparta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Sparta, and who commutes in
On a workday 380 residents head out to work, 32 work right here, and 352 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.93 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 Sparta’s working residents head each day
Where Sparta clocks in
8% 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 commute in Sparta is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sparta is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 4.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 676 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). 13.1% of Sparta households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sparta’s commuters take a bus or train.
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 Sparta: questions
What is the poverty rate in Sparta?
47.0%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sparta?
47 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sparta work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Milledgeville (8%, 20 mi), Atlanta (3%, 90 mi), Athens (3%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sparta walkable?
Sparta is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sparta without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sparta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sparta
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.