Tanglewood · Photo: GilbertThompson · CC BY-SA 4.0Summit’s household incomes are among the lowest in the country
Summit grades D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Measured by household income, Summit is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 45.8% of residents are in poverty, against 18.9% across Mississippi.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Summit
Summit and McComb trade workers both ways
McComb is the top workplace for Summit residents (33%) and also where the most people who work in Summit come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Summit workers earn over $40,000 a year
36% of Summit’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 21% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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 500 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Summit’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Summit is better than 5% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Summit’s grade up (ahead of 39% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (9.8%) is left out: Summit’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, Summit could be anywhere from D− to D.
33% of working residents work in McComb
Where Summit clocks in
8% 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 place that makes things: 33% of Summit’s jobs are in goods
492 jobs are based in Summit.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Summit, 2013 → 2023: 360 → 492. 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 Summit’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Summit’s workers travel
About 31% 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.
In and out of Summit on a workday
On a workday 490 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 482 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 (0.98 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.
The daily trip from Summit: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Summit workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 661 commuters (the 6% 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.
Most of Summit commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Summit is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 1.8% across Mississippi.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 701 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). 9.7% of Summit households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Summit’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, and where Summit sits
| # | 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− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,291 | Brodhead KY | 1,116 | $35K | 29.1% | 4.9% | 2% | D |
| 5,292 | Bagley MN | 1,310 | $45K | 17.7% | 6.6% | 33% | D |
| 5,293 | Summit MS | 1,417 | $29K | 45.8% | 9.8% | 2% | D |
| 5,294 | Crane MO | 1,509 | $37K | 34.2% | 6.5% | 8% | D |
| 5,295 | Sherburne NY | 1,359 | $45K | 19.6% | 5.7% | 12% | 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 Summit, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
Summit and its neighbors: 33% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to McComb. Darker towns draw more of Summit’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Summit: questions
What is the median household income in Summit?
$29,375 (±$5,043) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Summit?
45.8%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Summit?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Summit work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are McComb (33%, 2 mi), Brookhaven (8%, 21 mi), Magnolia (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Summit walkable?
Summit is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Summit without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Summit, from the people who make the trip.
More of Summit
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.