Photo: Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Sylvester have lower incomes than those in 76% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 27.9%, against 13.4% across Georgia. For jobs and income Sylvester is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in five stay in Sylvester for work; outside it, Albany is the main destination (16%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Sylvester in brief
Sylvester trades workers with the towns around it
Sylvester has about as many jobs (2,004) as working residents (1,985), but they are mostly different people: 1,631 residents leave for work each day while 1,650 people come in. Only 18% of the jobs in Sylvester are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Sylvester workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Sylvester’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Sylvester 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 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Sylvester
Job access by car holds Sylvester’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sylvester could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Sylvester by day and by night
On a workday 1,631 residents head out to work, 354 work right here, and 1,650 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 (1.01 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.
The kinds of work in Sylvester
2,004 jobs are based in Sylvester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sylvester, 2013 → 2023: 1,980 → 2,004. 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 Sylvester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Sylvester
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sylvester workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,100 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.
Where the trip to work from Sylvester ends
Where Sylvester clocks in
16% of workers
6% of workers
4% 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 far Sylvester goes to work
About 26% 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.
Getting around Sylvester: mostly by car
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 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,311 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 Sylvester households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Sylvester’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sylvester and other U.S. towns of 3,800 to 7,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Grayson GA | 5,569 | $131K | 3.5% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 159 | Senoia GA | 6,276 | $125K | 1.1% | 1.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 401 | Temple GA | 6,564 | $91K | 2.6% | 1.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,246 | Darlington SC | 6,075 | $34K | 30.2% | 7.1% | 14% | D |
| 3,247 | Colusa CA | 6,519 | $71K | 18.1% | 10.3% | 25% | D |
| 3,248 | Sylvester GA | 5,430 | $58K | 27.9% | 6.1% | 18% | D |
| 3,249 | Wellsville NY | 4,504 | $55K | 19.9% | 6.0% | 25% | D |
| 3,250 | Warren Township OH | 5,554 | $53K | 23.0% | 5.2% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,541 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Sylvester, 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 Sylvester: questions
What is the median household income in Sylvester?
$58,417 (±$15,634) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sylvester?
27.9%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sylvester?
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 Sylvester work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albany (16%, 20 mi), Tifton (6%, 19 mi), Moultrie (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sylvester walkable?
Sylvester is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sylvester without a car?
3% 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 Sylvester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sylvester
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.