Photo: David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA · CC BY 2.0Atlanta at work: jobs, income and the commute
Only 6% work in Atlanta itself; outside it, Lincoln draws the most (17%, 11 miles). The two grades for Atlanta are B for jobs and income and C for walkability. Working residents average 25 minutes each way, where Illinois has 28 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Atlanta
Stores, warehouses and trucking
64% of the jobs in Atlanta are in trade, transport and utilities, against 26% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
Atlanta and Lincoln trade workers both ways
Lincoln is the top workplace for Atlanta residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Atlanta come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 498 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Atlanta earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Atlanta is better than 59% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Atlanta’s grade. It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.3%) is left out: Atlanta’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Atlanta could be anywhere from C to A−.
What Atlanta’s employers do
311 jobs are based in Atlanta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Atlanta, 2013 → 2023: 363 → 311. 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 Atlanta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The towns that employ Atlanta’s residents
Where Atlanta clocks in
17% of workers
12% 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 many people are in Atlanta by day
On a workday 469 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 282 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Atlanta on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.62 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.
Getting to work from Atlanta takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Atlanta workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 568 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% 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 Atlanta commutes
About 27% 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 Atlanta is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Atlanta is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Atlanta near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 698 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). 2.2% of Atlanta households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Atlanta’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Atlanta is 1,751st of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,749 | Goodland Township MI | 1,739 | $108K | 8.4% | 6.8% | 2% | B |
| 1,750 | Heritage Pines FL | 1,477 | $71K | 5.4% | 0.0% | <1% | B |
| 1,751 | Atlanta IL | 1,626 | $81K | 8.1% | 3.3% | 6% | B |
| 1,752 | Perry Township IN | 1,504 | $64K | 4.9% | 2.5% | <1% | B |
| 1,753 | Dutch Island GA | 1,225 | $161K | 20.0% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Atlanta, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
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 Atlanta: questions
What is the median household income in Atlanta?
$80,972 (±$22,243) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Atlanta?
8.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Atlanta?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Atlanta work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lincoln (17%, 11 mi), Springfield (12%, 39 mi), Bloomington (4%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Atlanta walkable?
Atlanta is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Atlanta without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Atlanta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Atlanta
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.