Gautier has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Gautier report 3,946 jobs for 7,706 working residents. Gautier grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. About one in ten stay in Gautier for work; outside it, Pascagoula is the main destination (27%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Gautier, in brief
Income, poverty and work: Gautier’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gautier is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #33 of 99 in Mississippi. Unemployment holds Gautier’s grade up (3.8%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.5%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gautier could be anywhere from C− to B.
Where the trip to work from Gautier ends
Where Gautier clocks in
27% of workers
10% of workers
8% 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.
In and out of Gautier on a workday
On a workday 6,933 residents head out to work, 773 work right here, and 3,173 people come in from elsewhere.
About 15,000 people are in Gautier on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Gautier
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gautier, 2013 → 2023: 3,685 → 3,946. 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 Gautier’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Gautier takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gautier workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,269 commuters (the 7% 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.
How far Gautier’s workers travel
About 15% 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.
In Gautier, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gautier is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns, #86 of 101 in Mississippi. Both inputs place Gautier 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 8,854 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). 8.9% of Gautier households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gautier’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,539th of 2,023: where Gautier ranks among U.S. towns of 13,000 to 26,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 826 | Hernando MS | 18,824 | $77K | 8.8% | 2.5% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 963 | Ocean Springs MS | 18,993 | $80K | 5.5% | 4.2% | 23% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,188 | Ridgeland MS | 24,750 | $66K | 9.9% | 4.1% | 17% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,537 | Hays KS | 21,258 | $58K | 20.1% | 3.6% | 63% | C+ |
| 1,538 | Emporia KS | 24,137 | $53K | 17.8% | 2.0% | 60% | C+ |
| 1,539 | Gautier MS | 19,069 | $62K | 17.5% | 3.8% | 10% | C+ |
| 1,540 | Dryden NY | 13,320 | $81K | 13.6% | 5.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,541 | American Township OH | 14,434 | $65K | 8.1% | 7.7% | 13% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,023 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Gautier, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
How Gautier compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Ocean Springs (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gautier workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gautier | – | C+ | C− | 24 min | $61,926 |
| Vancleave | under 2% | B | D− | 33 min | $70,313 |
| Ocean Springs | 8% | B+ | B− | 26 min | $79,712 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Gautier’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Gautier: questions
What is the median household income in Gautier?
$61,926 (±$12,157) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gautier?
17.5%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gautier?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gautier work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pascagoula (27%, 7 mi), Biloxi (10%, 16 mi), Ocean Springs (8%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gautier walkable?
Gautier is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gautier without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gautier, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gautier
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.