Photo: JonathanTheLibrarian · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Collins earn less than those in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Collins; the top destination outside it is Hattiesburg (12%, 28 miles). 38.3% of residents live below the poverty line, where Mississippi as a whole has 18.9%. The two grades for Collins are D for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Collins and work: the main findings
Collins fills up on a workday
Collins has 3,647 jobs, 4.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 5,000 people are in town, more than double the 2,200 who live here. Day and night ↓
Collins’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Collins is Hattiesburg, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (102) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Collins workers earn over $40,000 a year
35% of Collins’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 21% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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 833 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Collins’ grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Collins is better than 6% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Collins’ grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Collins’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, Collins could be anywhere from D− to D.
The daily commute in and out of Collins
On a workday 637 residents head out to work, 196 work right here, and 3,451 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,000 people are in Collins on a workday afternoon, 126% more than live here.
4.4 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.
How far it is to work from Collins
About 31% 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.
Goods, not services: 42% of the jobs in Collins
3,647 jobs are based in Collins.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Collins, 2013 → 2023: 3,526 → 3,647. 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 Collins’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Collins’ workforce comes from
Where Collins clocks in
12% of workers
9% 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 long Collins spends getting to work: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Collins workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 744 commuters (the 6% 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.
In Collins, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Collins is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 16.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 792 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). 5.9% of Collins households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 12% of Collins’ commuters take a bus or train.
Collins next to U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,690 | Guntown MS | 2,616 | $96K | 9.8% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,761 | Lynchburg MS | 2,161 | $89K | 7.1% | 10.2% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,773 | DeLisle MS | 1,906 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.9% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,689 | Hinckley MN | 1,992 | $51K | 19.7% | 6.8% | 25% | D |
| 4,690 | Eupora MS | 2,116 | $54K | 23.0% | 18.8% | 23% | D |
| 4,691 | Collins MS | 2,232 | $38K | 38.3% | 5.3% | 24% | D |
| 4,692 | Great Falls SC | 1,960 | $30K | 31.1% | 3.6% | 4% | D |
| 4,693 | Kenockee Township MI | 2,376 | $62K | 22.7% | 14.0% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Collins, 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 Collins: questions
What is the median household income in Collins?
$37,944 (±$10,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Collins?
38.3%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Collins?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Collins work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hattiesburg (12%, 28 mi), Laurel (9%, 25 mi), Jackson (4%, 60 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Collins walkable?
Collins is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 17% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Collins without a car?
12% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Collins, from the people who make the trip.
More of Collins
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.