Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0Household incomes in Andrews are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 2% of workers, where North Carolina as a whole has 16%. Poverty touches 21.4% of residents, next to 13.0% for North Carolina as a whole. Jobs and income earn Andrews D−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Andrews apart
A big share show a job far from home
35% 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 ↓
Fewer than half of Andrews workers earn over $40,000 a year
38% of Andrews’ 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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Andrews than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Andrews fell from 1,129 in 2013 to 784 in 2023, −31%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
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 526 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Andrews’ grade explained
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Andrews’ grade.
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Andrews’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, Andrews could be anywhere from D− to D.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Andrews
About 35% 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.
What Andrews’ employers do
784 jobs are based in Andrews.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Andrews, 2013 → 2023: 1,129 → 784. 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 Andrews’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Andrews
On a workday 445 residents head out to work, 81 work right here, and 703 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Andrews on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.49 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.
7% of working residents work in Murphy
Where Andrews clocks in
7% of workers
4% 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.
Getting to work from Andrews takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Andrews workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 852 commuters (the 2% 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.
Most trips from Andrews start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Andrews is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.9% across North Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 869 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). 8.1% of Andrews households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Andrews’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Andrews compares with U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 153 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,127 | Wewahitchka FL | 2,213 | $44K | 20.1% | 2.0% | 13% | D− |
| 5,128 | Stockton MO | 1,825 | $38K | 20.0% | 8.9% | 18% | D− |
| 5,129 | Andrews NC | 1,799 | $37K | 21.4% | 5.5% | 15% | D− |
| 5,130 | Glouster OH | 1,630 | $38K | 28.0% | 4.8% | 5% | D− |
| 5,131 | Woodsfield OH | 2,127 | $49K | 25.4% | 12.6% | 23% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Andrews, 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 Andrews: questions
What is the median household income in Andrews?
$37,061 (±$8,433) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Andrews?
21.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Andrews?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Andrews work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Murphy (7%, 13 mi), Asheville (4%, 76 mi), Charlotte (4%, 169 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Andrews walkable?
Andrews is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Andrews without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Andrews, from the people who make the trip.
More of Andrews
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.