Photo: R. Stephens (Rdstephens at en.wikipedia) · Public domainHousehold incomes in Macon are among the lowest of any U.S. town
Poverty touches 34.7% of residents, where Mississippi as a whole has 18.9%. Measured by household income, Macon is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Macon are 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 commute and the jobs: Macon in brief
Macon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Macon is Columbus, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (73) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Macon workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Macon’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% 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 778 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Macon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Macon is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Macon’s grade up (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,774, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Macon could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The distance from Macon to work
About 28% 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.
What Macon’s employers do
1,051 jobs are based in Macon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Macon, 2013 → 2023: 957 → 1,051. 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 Macon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Macon
On a workday 591 residents head out to work, 187 work right here, and 864 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,700 people are in Macon on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.35 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.
9% of working residents work in Columbus
Where Macon clocks in
3% 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.
From Macon, about 27 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Macon workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,111 commuters (the 5% 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.
Driving is how Macon gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Macon is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Macon 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 1,174 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). 5.3% of Macon households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Macon’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,300, and where Macon sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 555 | Bridgetown MS | 3,195 | $139K | 1.0% | 5.8% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,808 | Guntown MS | 2,616 | $96K | 9.8% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,887 | Lynchburg MS | 2,161 | $89K | 7.1% | 10.2% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,052 | Crandon WI | 1,726 | $43K | 20.9% | 1.8% | 16% | D− |
| 5,053 | Salem Township MO | 2,360 | $40K | 23.1% | 2.9% | 13% | D− |
| 5,054 | Macon MS | 2,432 | $32K | 34.7% | 8.5% | 24% | D− |
| 5,055 | Louisiana MO | 3,208 | $39K | 31.7% | 8.6% | 24% | D− |
| 5,056 | Hobart OK | 3,257 | $33K | 30.1% | 7.0% | 37% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,207 | 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 Macon, 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 Macon: questions
What is the median household income in Macon?
$31,774 (±$8,161) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Macon?
34.7%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Macon?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Macon work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbus (9%, 28 mi), Starkville (4%, 28 mi), West Point (3%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Macon walkable?
Macon is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Macon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Macon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Macon
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.