Photo: Nyttend · Public domainAsheboro’s household incomes are lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 16% across North Carolina. 19.7% of residents are in poverty, next to 13.0% for North Carolina as a whole. Jobs and income earn Asheboro C; getting around on foot earns it C.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Asheboro stands out on work
Asheboro draws workers from far and wide
The 18,461 jobs in Asheboro are filled from a wide area. Asheboro’s own residents hold 17% and the ten next-biggest home towns 12%; the other 71% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Asheboro is where the jobs are
Asheboro has 18,461 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Asheboro’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Asheboro is Greensboro, 27 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (1,238) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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.
What’s behind Asheboro’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Asheboro is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #190 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Asheboro’s grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($47,197, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Asheboro could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Where Asheboro’s workforce comes from
Where Asheboro clocks in
11% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Asheboro
On a workday 7,647 residents head out to work, 3,131 work right here, and 15,330 people come in from elsewhere.
About 36,000 people are in Asheboro on a workday afternoon, 27% more than live here.
1.7 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.
The distance from Asheboro to work
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.
Asheboro works in goods: 29% of its jobs
18,461 jobs are based in Asheboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Asheboro, 2013 → 2023: 19,406 → 18,461. 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 Asheboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Asheboro
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Asheboro workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,486 commuters (the 6% 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 Asheboro, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Asheboro is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns, #189 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 12,181 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 9% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 57% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.7% of Asheboro households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Asheboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,207th of 1,409: where Asheboro ranks among U.S. towns of 20,000 to 38,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Matthews NC | 32,769 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Harrisburg NC | 20,742 | $148K | 3.7% | 3.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 104 | Morrisville NC | 32,466 | $125K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,205 | Butte-Silver Bow MT | 36,118 | $62K | 14.8% | 4.1% | 63% | C |
| 1,206 | Fernley NV | 26,214 | $90K | 12.8% | 5.5% | 20% | C |
| 1,207 | Asheboro NC | 27,990 | $47K | 19.7% | 4.0% | 29% | C |
| 1,208 | East Hemet CA | 20,257 | $82K | 18.8% | 7.6% | 4% | C |
| 1,209 | Lemoore CA | 27,291 | $84K | 15.1% | 13.1% | 15% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,409 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Asheboro, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Around Asheboro: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Randleman (3%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Asheboro’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 Asheboro: questions
What is the median household income in Asheboro?
$47,197 (±$5,028) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Asheboro?
19.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Asheboro?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Asheboro work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greensboro (11%, 27 mi), High Point (5%, 22 mi), Charlotte (4%, 67 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Asheboro walkable?
Asheboro is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Asheboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Asheboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Asheboro
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.