Photo: Woodlot · CC BY-SA 3.0At 10.4%, unemployment in Poplarville is higher than in 95% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Poplarville are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in five stay in Poplarville for work; outside it, Hattiesburg is the main destination (10%, 35 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Poplarville stands out on work
Poplarville is where the jobs are
Poplarville has 1,863 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Poplarville’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Poplarville is Hattiesburg, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (84) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 818 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Poplarville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Poplarville is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #63 of 99 in Mississippi. The poverty rate holds Poplarville’s grade up (12.8%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Poplarville could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Who leaves Poplarville for work, and who comes in
On a workday 638 residents head out to work, 180 work right here, and 1,683 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Poplarville on a workday afternoon, 36% more than live here.
2.3 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Poplarville
About 32% 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.
Commuting in to Poplarville: where workers come from
Where Poplarville clocks in
10% of workers
4% 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.
What the 1,863 jobs in Poplarville are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poplarville, 2013 → 2023: 2,078 → 1,863. 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 Poplarville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Poplarville’s commute takes about 34 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poplarville workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,027 commuters (the 4% 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.
Few in Poplarville walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Poplarville is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns, #19 of 101 in Mississippi. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,066 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). 4.3% of Poplarville households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Poplarville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,882 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900, Poplarville comes 4,252nd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 601 | Bridgetown MS | 3,195 | $139K | 1.0% | 5.8% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 967 | Gluckstadt MS | 3,500 | $124K | 5.3% | 5.4% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,854 | Guntown MS | 2,616 | $96K | 9.8% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,250 | Ajo AZ | 3,107 | $54K | 9.9% | 6.9% | 35% | D |
| 4,251 | Unionville GA | 2,000 | $53K | 31.8% | 10.5% | 0% | D |
| 4,252 | Poplarville MS | 2,918 | $54K | 12.8% | 10.4% | 22% | D |
| 4,253 | Ninety Six SC | 2,089 | $55K | 22.6% | 7.2% | 6% | D |
| 4,254 | Windsor Township MO | 3,454 | $52K | 23.3% | 4.7% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Poplarville, 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 Poplarville: questions
What is the median household income in Poplarville?
$53,603 (±$20,391) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poplarville?
12.8%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poplarville?
34 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poplarville work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hattiesburg (10%, 35 mi), Picayune (4%, 23 mi), Gulfport (4%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Poplarville walkable?
Poplarville is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poplarville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Poplarville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poplarville
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.