Editors note: For comments and information, contact Annette Watters, program manager, Center for Business and Economic Research, and manager, Alabama State Data Center, 205/348-6191.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Despite the often heard complaint about how long it takes Alabama workers to get to their jobs, a recent report from the Bureau of the Census shows a lot of Alabamians actually have a short commute, according to Annette Watters, manager of the Alabama State Data Center at The University of Alabama and a member of the National Steering Committee of the Census Bureau’s State Data Center organization.

The Census Bureau, according to Watters, has just released several quality of life characteristics and their national rankings for selected United States metropolitan areas in 2002. One of those is “mean travel time to work in minutes.” In this particular category, the lower the ranking, the longer the commute. And, of course, in this context, the word “mean” means the arithmetic average.

Of the 164 metro areas that were included in the survey, New York, N.Y., ranks No. 1 in longest travel time to work in 2002 at 37.5 minutes. In contrast, folks in Huntsville, ranked 151, have a mean travel time of 19.1 minutes. Of the four Alabama metro areas included in the survey, the longest commute is in Birmingham, ranked 61, with a mean travel time of 24 minutes for its workers to get to their jobs.

Two minutes below Birmingham is Mobile with a travel time of 22.6 minutes (ranked 80) and then Montgomery with a mean travel time of 20.7 minutes (ranked 121). Huntsville (19.1 minutes) had the shortest commute time of the Alabama metros included in the report. The shortest travel time in the nation’s surveyed metro areas, according to Watters, is in Lincoln, Neb., with 15.8 minutes.

Huntsville leads the state’s surveyed metropolitan areas in each of the quality of life characteristics listed.

“This is, in all probability, because of that area’s high number of high-wage technology-based businesses,” Watters said.

In 2002 Huntsville workers enjoyed the state’s highest median household income at $44,740, ranked No. 73 nationally. The highest median income is in another high-tech community, San Jose, Calif., with $79,531.

Birmingham, ranked 106 with a median income of $40,914, followed Huntsville. Mobile Metropolitan Statistical Area (130, $38,863) and Montgomery (152, $35,575) are the other Alabama metro areas for which there are new statistics on median income.

Huntsville also has the highest number of people in the state with bachelor’s degrees, at 33.3 percent, Watters said. The Boulder-Longmont, Colo. area is No. 1 in the nation in this category. In Boulder, more than half (55.2 percent) of all adults have a college degree.

Montgomery is No. 59 in the nation, with 28.6 percent of the adult population having achieved at least a bachelor’s degree. Birmingham’s educational attainment is a little lower (26.9 percent, No. 73) and in Mobile about a fifth of the adults have finished college (21.3 percent, No. 131).

“Obviously, the high-tech factor in Huntsville comes into play again here,” Watters said. “The three-county Montgomery metro has attracted well-educated people because it is the seat of state government. Birmingham has had a mix of occupational demands, some requiring advanced degrees and others not, whereas Mobile has a good many traditionally blue-collar jobs.”

Lincoln, Neb., which had the short commute time, also had the highest percent of people with high school diplomas or higher. In Lincoln, 94.3 percent of all adults have graduated from high school. Less than six percent of that area’s adults don’t have at least a high school diploma.

In Alabama, the distinction of greatest percentage of high school graduates goes again to Huntsville, at 86 percent, followed by Birmingham (82.2 percent) and Mobile and Montgomery, both with 81.8 percent.

Watters said, “Maybe parents living in these metro areas see every day the economic value of education, and we can expect the high school graduates to continue to rise throughout the decade.”

Unfortunately, Mobile and Montgomery ranked in the top 15 metropolitan areas in the nation in percent of people in poverty and percent of children under 18 in poverty. In this case, a high ranking is not a good ranking. Two Texas MSAs topped those categories, but Mobile ranked 11th for all persons in poverty and 12th for children in poverty. Montgomery ranked 10th and 14th.

The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, founded in 1919, first began offering graduate education in 1923. Its Center for Business and Economic Research was created in 1930, and since that time has engaged in research programs to promote economic development in the state while continuously expanding and refining its base of socioeconomic information.

Information about any county in Alabama can be obtained at http://cber.cba.ua.edu.