Wadley’s household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
26.8% of residents are in poverty, against 13.4% across Georgia. Jobs and income earn Wadley D−; getting around on foot earns it B−. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers (Georgia 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Wadley, in a few figures
Wadley is where the jobs are
Wadley has 966 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Wadley makes and builds things
63% of the jobs based in Wadley are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wadley residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Wadley pay better than its residents’ jobs
64% of the jobs based in Wadley pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 40% of the jobs Wadley residents hold. 93% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Wadley. 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 542 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Wadley’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Wadley is better than 2% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Wadley’s grade.
Unemployment (8.6%) is left out: Wadley’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, Wadley could be anywhere from D− to D.
Wadley fills up on a workday
On a workday 470 residents head out to work, 72 work right here, and 894 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Wadley on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.8 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.
Goods, not services: 63% of the jobs in Wadley
966 jobs are based in Wadley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wadley, 2013 → 2023: 753 → 966. 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 Wadley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that send workers to Wadley
Where Wadley clocks in
9% 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 34 minutes from Wadley
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wadley workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 519 commuters (the 3% 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 distance from Wadley to work
About 35% 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.
The commute in Wadley is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wadley is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, the same share as across Georgia, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 534 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). 13.9% of Wadley households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Wadley’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Wadley compares with U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Berkeley Lake GA | 2,034 | $166K | 1.6% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | Fairplay GA | 1,881 | $120K | 1.6% | 1.2% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 193 | Isle of Hope GA | 2,053 | $105K | 1.4% | 1.3% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,567 | Midway AR | 1,279 | $31K | 30.8% | 0.0% | 2% | D− |
| 5,568 | Cypress Quarters FL | 1,697 | $38K | 35.0% | 2.5% | 2% | D− |
| 5,569 | Wadley GA | 1,548 | $38K | 26.8% | 8.6% | 13% | D− |
| 5,570 | Pineville KY | 1,552 | $25K | 34.0% | 15.0% | 24% | D− |
| 5,571 | Rich Hill MO | 1,264 | $47K | 33.7% | 6.5% | 9% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Wadley, 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 Wadley: questions
What is the median household income in Wadley?
$37,500 (±$11,661) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wadley?
26.8%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wadley?
34 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wadley work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Louisville (9%, 9 mi), Augusta (8%, 39 mi), Swainsboro (6%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wadley walkable?
Wadley is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wadley without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wadley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wadley
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.