Households in Shannon have lower incomes than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Only 4% work in Shannon; the top destination outside it is Tupelo (40%, 11 miles). 24.1% of residents live below the poverty line, against 18.9% across Mississippi. The two grades for Shannon are D for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Shannon, in a few figures
Jobs in Shannon have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Shannon went from 350 in 2013 to 991 in 2023, +183%. The jobs ↓
Shannon makes and builds things
77% of the jobs based in Shannon are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Shannon residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 33%. The jobs ↓
40% of Shannon works in Tupelo
245 working residents, 40%, have their main job in Tupelo, 11 miles away. That’s 10 times as many as work in Shannon itself. The commute map ↓
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 613 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Shannon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Shannon is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Shannon’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($42,297, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (8.9%) is left out: Shannon’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, Shannon could be anywhere from D to C−.
In Shannon, 77% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
991 jobs are based in Shannon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shannon, 2013 → 2023: 350 → 991. 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 Shannon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Shannon live
Where Shannon clocks in
40% 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.
Shannon fills up on a workday
On a workday 590 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 968 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Shannon on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.6 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.
About 22 minutes to work from Shannon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shannon workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 535 commuters (the 3% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Shannon
About 16% 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.
For most of Shannon, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shannon is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Shannon 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 553 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). 5.6% of Shannon households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shannon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Shannon comes 5,436th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,786 | DeLisle MS | 1,906 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.9% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,098 | Arnold Line MS | 1,859 | $54K | 16.0% | 0.0% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,175 | Columbus AFB MS | 1,293 | $70K | 6.3% | 1.9% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,434 | Baldwin LA | 1,676 | $32K | 26.9% | 1.2% | 2% | D |
| 5,435 | Sibley LA | 1,068 | $42K | 24.2% | 2.4% | 2% | D |
| 5,436 | Shannon MS | 1,496 | $42K | 24.1% | 8.9% | 4% | D |
| 5,437 | Bayboro NC | 1,242 | $34K | 12.2% | 1.4% | 7% | D |
| 5,438 | Russells Point OH | 1,323 | $42K | 26.2% | 5.3% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Shannon, 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 Shannon: questions
What is the median household income in Shannon?
$42,297 (±$10,223) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shannon?
24.1%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shannon?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shannon work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tupelo (40%, 11 mi), Oxford (3%, 51 mi), Verona (2%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Shannon walkable?
Shannon is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shannon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shannon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shannon
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.