Photo: Chillin662 · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes put Mound Bayou near the very bottom of U.S. towns
The two grades for Mound Bayou are D− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Measured by household income, Mound Bayou is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Below the poverty line: 46.4% of residents, next to 18.9% for Mississippi as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Mound Bayou at work: what stands out
Mound Bayou and Cleveland trade workers both ways
Cleveland is the top workplace for Mound Bayou residents (22%) and also where the most people who work in Mound Bayou come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Mound Bayou are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Mississippi. That’s about 61 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; with 420 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Mound Bayou earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mound Bayou is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mound Bayou’s grade up (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($23,732, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.4%) is left out: Mound Bayou’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mound Bayou stays D−.
22% of working residents work in Cleveland
Where Mound Bayou clocks in
22% of workers
5% 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.
Mound Bayou’s commute takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mound Bayou workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 449 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.
A workday in Mound Bayou: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 380 residents head out to work, 40 work right here, and 321 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.86 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.
In Mound Bayou, services account for most jobs
361 jobs are based in Mound Bayou.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mound Bayou, 2013 → 2023: 209 → 361. 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 Mound Bayou’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Mound Bayou works
About 27% 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.
Few in Mound Bayou walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mound Bayou is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mound Bayou 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 454 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). 14.5% of Mound Bayou households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mound Bayou’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mound Bayou and other U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,933 | Arnold Line MS | 1,859 | $54K | 16.0% | 0.0% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,001 | Columbus AFB MS | 1,293 | $70K | 6.3% | 1.9% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,293 | Hurley MS | 1,305 | $133K | 12.6% | 4.7% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,686 | Burkesville KY | 1,389 | $34K | 28.9% | 1.4% | 33% | D− |
| 5,687 | Mansura LA | 1,260 | $22K | 52.2% | 30.2% | 8% | D− |
| 5,688 | Mound Bayou MS | 1,381 | $24K | 46.4% | 4.4% | 10% | D− |
| 5,689 | Marble Hill MO | 1,380 | $38K | 29.5% | 4.2% | 13% | D− |
| 5,690 | Mansfield MO | 1,317 | $30K | 32.1% | 5.3% | 16% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Mound Bayou, 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 Mound Bayou: questions
What is the median household income in Mound Bayou?
$23,732 (±$4,448) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mound Bayou?
46.4%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mound Bayou?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mound Bayou work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cleveland (22%, 10 mi), Clarksdale (5%, 23 mi), Merigold (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mound Bayou walkable?
Mound Bayou is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mound Bayou without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mound Bayou, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mound Bayou
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.