Photo: Woodlot · CC BY-SA 4.0More people are out of work in Wiggins (12.0%) than in 97% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Wiggins; the top destination outside it is Hattiesburg (9%, 33 miles). Wiggins grades D− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Wiggins is behind 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Wiggins, in brief
Wiggins is where the jobs are
Wiggins has 2,923 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Wiggins’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Wiggins is Hattiesburg, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (139) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Wiggins workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 6% across Mississippi. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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.
Where Wiggins’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wiggins is better than 4% of U.S. towns, #91 of 99 in Mississippi. Job access by car holds Wiggins’ grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wiggins could be anywhere from D− to C.
The daily commute in and out of Wiggins
On a workday 1,061 residents head out to work, 422 work right here, and 2,501 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,800 people are in Wiggins on a workday afternoon, 33% more than live here.
2.0 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.
Where in the region Wiggins works
About 25% 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.
From Wiggins, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wiggins workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,691 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.
Where Wiggins’s workers come from
Where Wiggins clocks in
9% of workers
9% of workers
5% 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 Wiggins’ employers do
2,923 jobs are based in Wiggins.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wiggins, 2013 → 2023: 3,069 → 2,923. 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 Wiggins’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Wiggins, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wiggins is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns, #55 of 101 in Mississippi. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of 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 1,695 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). 14.4% of Wiggins households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wiggins’ commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800, and where Wiggins sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 600 | Bridgetown MS | 3,195 | $139K | 1.0% | 5.8% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 951 | Gluckstadt MS | 3,500 | $124K | 5.3% | 5.4% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,012 | New Hope MS | 3,952 | $80K | 2.9% | 1.2% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,878 | Park Rapids MN | 4,447 | $45K | 21.2% | 8.0% | 43% | D− |
| 3,879 | Cheboygan MI | 4,804 | $42K | 14.9% | 9.2% | 24% | D− |
| 3,880 | Wiggins MS | 4,316 | $50K | 24.8% | 12.0% | 28% | D− |
| 3,881 | Bellaire OH | 3,738 | $38K | 31.8% | 8.7% | 10% | D− |
| 3,882 | Bolivar TN | 5,043 | $39K | 21.7% | 13.2% | 27% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Wiggins, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
The towns around Wiggins
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wiggins workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wiggins | – | D− | C+ | 26 min | $49,870 |
| Bond | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Bond: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Wiggins’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 Wiggins: questions
What is the median household income in Wiggins?
$49,870 (±$13,470) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wiggins?
24.8%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wiggins?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. <1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wiggins work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hattiesburg (9%, 33 mi), Gulfport (9%, 30 mi), Biloxi (5%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wiggins walkable?
Wiggins is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wiggins 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 Wiggins, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wiggins
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.