Photo: Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History · Public domainAberdeen has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 28.2% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 18.9% for Mississippi as a whole. Aberdeen grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Aberdeen
Fewer than half of Aberdeen workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Aberdeen’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 ↓
Aberdeen’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Aberdeen is Tupelo, 32 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (197) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Aberdeen
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Aberdeen is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #75 of 99 in Mississippi. Job access by car holds Aberdeen’s grade up (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($33,285, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Aberdeen could be anywhere from D− to C.
What the 2,698 jobs in Aberdeen are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Aberdeen, 2013 → 2023: 2,560 → 2,698. 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 Aberdeen’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Aberdeen’s commute, mile by mile
About 20% 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.
Aberdeen by day and by night
On a workday 1,445 residents head out to work, 382 work right here, and 2,316 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,700 people are in Aberdeen on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 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.
11% of working residents work in Tupelo
Where Aberdeen clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
About 27 minutes each way, about the MS average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Aberdeen workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,577 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% 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 commute in Aberdeen is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Aberdeen is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns, #16 of 101 in Mississippi. Both inputs place Aberdeen 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 1,621 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). 8.0% of Aberdeen households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Aberdeen’s commuters take a bus or train.
Aberdeen and other U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 920 | Gluckstadt MS | 3,500 | $124K | 5.3% | 5.4% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 977 | New Hope MS | 3,952 | $80K | 2.9% | 1.2% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 985 | Gulf Park Estates MS | 6,264 | $66K | 5.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,508 | Blackshear GA | 3,680 | $41K | 23.3% | 5.8% | 18% | D |
| 3,509 | Oelwein IA | 5,757 | $47K | 18.5% | 7.6% | 33% | D |
| 3,510 | Aberdeen MS | 4,799 | $33K | 28.2% | 5.7% | 21% | D |
| 3,511 | Etowah TN | 3,786 | $39K | 15.4% | 11.1% | 10% | D |
| 3,512 | Carrollton MO | 3,499 | $50K | 23.5% | 5.2% | 39% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,753 | 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 Aberdeen, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
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 Aberdeen: questions
What is the median household income in Aberdeen?
$33,285 (±$11,167) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Aberdeen?
28.2%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Aberdeen?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Aberdeen work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tupelo (11%, 32 mi), Amory (7%, 11 mi), Columbus (5%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Aberdeen walkable?
Aberdeen is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Aberdeen without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Aberdeen, from the people who make the trip.
More of Aberdeen
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.