Photo: Property Wizard · CC BY-SA 3.0Belhaven has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Below the poverty line: 40.3% of residents, where North Carolina as a whole has 13.0%. The two grades for Belhaven are D− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Belhaven
Belhaven’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Belhaven is Greenville, 42 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (47) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Many jobs in Belhaven pay little
38% of the jobs based in Belhaven pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Belhaven workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Belhaven’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 22% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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 557 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Belhaven’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Belhaven is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Belhaven’s grade.
Unemployment (12.5%) is left out: Belhaven’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Belhaven stays D−.
How many miles Belhaven commutes
About 34% 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 the 420 jobs in Belhaven are
420 jobs are based in Belhaven.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Belhaven, 2013 → 2023: 559 → 420. 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 Belhaven’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Belhaven quiets down on a workday
On a workday 477 residents head out to work, 80 work right here, and 340 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Belhaven on a workday afternoon, 10% 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.
8% of working residents work in Greenville
Where Belhaven clocks in
8% of workers
3% 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.
About 34 minutes to work from Belhaven
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Belhaven workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 390 commuters (the 13% 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.
Belhaven is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Belhaven is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Belhaven near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 448 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). 18.0% of Belhaven households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Belhaven’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, and where Belhaven sits
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 5,854 | Simmesport LA | 1,400 | $30K | 37.6% | 13.6% | 17% | D− |
| 5,855 | Plains MT | 1,261 | $25K | 31.2% | 19.2% | 41% | D− |
| 5,856 | Belhaven NC | 1,414 | $33K | 40.3% | 12.5% | 14% | D− |
| 5,857 | Manchester OH | 1,874 | $29K | 44.5% | 7.9% | 12% | D− |
| 5,858 | Oceana WV | 1,382 | $33K | 43.1% | 5.1% | 9% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Belhaven, 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 Belhaven: questions
What is the median household income in Belhaven?
$32,644 (±$7,251) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Belhaven?
40.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Belhaven?
34 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Belhaven work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenville (8%, 42 mi), Washington (6%, 24 mi), Raleigh (3%, 115 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Belhaven walkable?
Belhaven is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Belhaven without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Belhaven, from the people who make the trip.
More of Belhaven
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.