Advance has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
For jobs and income Advance is better than 86% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (D−). There are 258 jobs in Advance, and 614 of its residents work somewhere. Only 1% work in Advance itself; outside it, Winston-Salem draws the most (23%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Advance: the gist
Inside Advance’s Jobs & income grade
Household income is its strongest input ($115,391, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Advance’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, Advance could be anywhere from B to A+.
From Advance, about 31 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Advance workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 591 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across North Carolina: 85% 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.
In and out of Advance on a workday
On a workday 607 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 251 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Advance on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
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 people from Advance work
Where Advance clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 34% of the jobs in Advance
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Advance, 2013 → 2023: 229 → 258. 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 Advance’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Advance
About 22% 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.
Most of Advance commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 651 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). 2.1% of Advance households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Advance’s commuters take a bus or train.
406th of 5,877: where Advance ranks among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 267 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 404 | Springville IA | 1,160 | $93K | 2.7% | 5.2% | 4% | A |
| 405 | Radnor Township OH | 1,748 | $117K | 6.5% | 4.9% | 1% | A |
| 406 | Advance NC | 1,408 | $115K | 5.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| 407 | Union Township IN | 1,256 | $103K | 3.5% | 0.6% | 3% | A |
| 408 | Medary WI | 1,563 | $105K | 3.8% | 1.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Advance, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
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 Advance: questions
What is the median household income in Advance?
$115,391 (±$25,836) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Advance?
5.0%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Advance?
31 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Advance work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Winston-Salem (23%, 13 mi), Mocksville (7%, 10 mi), Charlotte (6%, 57 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Advance walkable?
Advance is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Advance without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Advance, from the people who make the trip.
More of Advance
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.