Photo: DanielPenfield · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Quitman trail those of 90% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Quitman is better than 4% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (A−). 27.7% of residents live below the poverty line; Mississippi has 18.9%. About one in four work in Quitman itself; outside it, Meridian draws the most (21%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Quitman, in brief
Quitman is where the jobs are
Quitman has 1,612 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,900 people are in town, 49% more than the 1,900 who live here. Day and night ↓
Quitman’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Quitman is Meridian, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 21% of working residents (144) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Quitman workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Quitman’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% 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 672 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Quitman earns its Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Quitman’s grade.
Unemployment (1.5%) is left out: Quitman’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, Quitman could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who leaves Quitman for work, and who comes in
On a workday 502 residents head out to work, 170 work right here, and 1,442 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,900 people are in Quitman on a workday afternoon, 49% more than live here.
2.4 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 Quitman
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.
Jobs in Quitman: what the 1,612 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Quitman, 2013 → 2023: 1,663 → 1,612. 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 Quitman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Quitman’s workers come from
Where Quitman clocks in
21% of workers
4% of workers
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.
A commute of about 31 minutes in Quitman
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Quitman workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 724 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.
Quitman is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 31.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 779 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). 9.3% of Quitman households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Quitman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Quitman next to U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,900 | Lynchburg MS | 2,161 | $89K | 7.1% | 10.2% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,915 | DeLisle MS | 1,906 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.9% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,949 | Sumrall MS | 2,299 | $70K | 4.4% | 6.9% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,507 | Omega GA | 1,341 | $42K | 34.1% | 2.6% | 7% | D− |
| 5,508 | Osburn ID | 1,673 | $51K | 18.5% | 2.2% | 16% | D− |
| 5,509 | Quitman MS | 1,925 | $48K | 27.7% | 1.5% | 25% | D− |
| 5,510 | Chadbourn NC | 1,539 | $46K | 30.6% | 0.0% | 5% | D− |
| 5,511 | Wellington TX | 1,770 | $57K | 22.4% | 0.2% | 40% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Quitman, 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 Quitman: questions
What is the median household income in Quitman?
$47,538 (±$4,783) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Quitman?
27.7%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Quitman?
31 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Quitman work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Meridian (21%, 24 mi), Laurel (4%, 35 mi), Jackson (3%, 89 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Quitman walkable?
Quitman is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 31% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Quitman 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 Quitman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Quitman
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.