Earning a living in Balfour
7% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole. For jobs and income Balfour is better than 66% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−). Household incomes here are lower than in 58% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Balfour stands out on work
Balfour makes and builds things
73% of the jobs based in Balfour are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Balfour residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 20%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Balfour pay better than its residents’ jobs
82% of the jobs based in Balfour pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 58% of the jobs Balfour residents hold. 98% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Balfour. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Balfour are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical North Carolina worker. 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; with 562 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Balfour earns its Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Balfour’s grade up (5.6%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($70,116, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Balfour’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Balfour could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Goods, not services: 73% of the jobs in Balfour
424 jobs are based in Balfour.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Balfour, 2013 → 2023: 291 → 424. 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 Balfour’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 18 minutes each way for Balfour’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Balfour workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 709 commuters (the 7% 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.
How a workday changes Balfour
On a workday 553 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 415 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Balfour on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 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.
21% of working residents work in Hendersonville
Where Balfour clocks in
21% 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.
How far Balfour goes to work
About 16% 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.
Balfour is easy on foot, hard by bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 759 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). 0.0% of Balfour households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Balfour’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Balfour comes 722nd on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Montreat NC | 1,024 | $116K | 0.0% | 9.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 235 | Advance NC | 1,408 | $115K | 5.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 720 | Smithville OH | 1,333 | $72K | 6.7% | 1.8% | 8% | B+ |
| 721 | Lancaster Township IL | 1,351 | $91K | 6.6% | 2.5% | 2% | B+ |
| 722 | Balfour NC | 1,134 | $70K | 5.6% | 0.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 723 | La Vernia TX | 1,499 | $76K | 8.3% | 4.0% | 8% | B+ |
| 724 | Liberty Township PA | 1,413 | $93K | 4.3% | 1.3% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Balfour, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Next door is work for 21% of Balfour
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Balfour workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balfour | – | B+ | A− | 18 min | $70,116 |
| Hendersonville | 21% | C+ | A− | 19 min | $53,449 |
| Mountain Home | under 2% | B+ | C− | 19 min | $83,083 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hendersonville. Darker towns draw more of Balfour’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 Balfour: questions
What is the median household income in Balfour?
$70,116 (±$16,992) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Balfour?
5.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Balfour?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Balfour work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hendersonville (21%, 3 mi), Asheville (17%, 16 mi), Charlotte (4%, 94 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Balfour walkable?
Balfour is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Balfour without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Balfour, from the people who make the trip.
More of Balfour
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.