Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Booneville has lower household incomes than 87% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Booneville; the top destination outside it is Tupelo (13%, 29 miles). Poverty touches 15.1% of residents (Mississippi 18.9%). The two grades for Booneville are C for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Booneville apart on work
Booneville is where the jobs are
Booneville has 5,651 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Booneville draws workers from far and wide
The 5,651 jobs in Booneville are filled from a wide area. Booneville’s own residents hold 19% and the ten next-biggest home towns 13%; the other 68% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Booneville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Booneville is Tupelo, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (434) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Commutes from Booneville are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 26 across Mississippi. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Mississippi 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.
Where Booneville’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Booneville is better than 30% of U.S. towns, #38 of 99 in Mississippi. Unemployment holds Booneville’s grade up (3.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($50,879, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Booneville could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who leaves Booneville for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,179 residents head out to work, 1,090 work right here, and 4,561 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Booneville on a workday afternoon, 26% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Who travels to work in Booneville, and from where
Where Booneville clocks in
13% of workers
5% of workers
2% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Booneville
About 19% 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 trip to work from Booneville: about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Booneville workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,547 commuters (the 1% 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.
What Booneville’s employers do
5,651 jobs are based in Booneville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Booneville, 2013 → 2023: 5,223 → 5,651. 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 Booneville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Booneville commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Booneville is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns, #70 of 101 in Mississippi. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 1.8% across Mississippi.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,594 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). 7.0% of Booneville households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Booneville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Booneville is 2,196th of 2,841 U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,500 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,371 | Diamondhead MS | 9,441 | $87K | 7.0% | 4.2% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,435 | Flowood MS | 11,003 | $84K | 13.4% | 4.1% | 15% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,671 | Petal MS | 11,694 | $75K | 11.1% | 3.6% | 14% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,194 | Monmouth IL | 8,599 | $61K | 17.7% | 3.6% | 44% | C |
| 2,195 | Breaux Bridge LA | 7,652 | $48K | 30.4% | 3.5% | 15% | C |
| 2,196 | Booneville MS | 9,257 | $51K | 15.1% | 3.2% | 33% | C |
| 2,197 | Latimer MS | 6,756 | $70K | 16.1% | 6.4% | 2% | C |
| 2,198 | Murillo TX | 8,883 | $71K | 19.2% | 11.3% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,841 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Booneville, 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 Booneville: questions
What is the median household income in Booneville?
$50,879 (±$5,884) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Booneville?
15.1%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Booneville?
20 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Booneville work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tupelo (13%, 29 mi), Corinth (5%, 20 mi), Baldwyn (2%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Booneville walkable?
Booneville is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Booneville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Booneville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Booneville
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.