Belhaven Commercial Historic District · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainAbout half of Bent Creek’s working residents commute to Asheville
Only 1% stay in Bent Creek for work; outside it, Asheville is the main destination (46%, 6 miles). Bent Creek grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. A typical one-way commute lasts 20 minutes (North Carolina 25, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Bent Creek
Nearly half of Bent Creek works in Asheville
264 working residents, 46%, have their main job in Asheville, 5.5 miles away. That’s 46 times as many as work in Bent Creek itself. The commute map ↓
Most Bent Creek residents work close to home
68% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Bent Creek is a place people come home to
There are 131 jobs based in Bent Creek, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Bent Creek has about 950 people in it, 32% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 568 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Bent Creek’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Bent Creek is better than 41% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Bent Creek’s grade up (ahead of 59% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (15.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (12.5%) is left out: Bent Creek’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, Bent Creek could be anywhere from D to A.
Where Bent Creek’s working residents head each day
Where Bent Creek clocks in
3% 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.
Where in the region Bent Creek works
About 17% 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.
A workday in Bent Creek: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 560 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 123 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Bent Creek on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.23 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
82% of the jobs in Bent Creek pay over $3,333 a month
131 jobs are based in Bent Creek.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bent Creek, 2013 → 2023: 52 → 131. 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 Bent Creek’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Bent Creek takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bent Creek workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 500 commuters (the 19% 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 Bent Creek, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bent Creek is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 615 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 2.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 68% 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). 3.5% of Bent Creek households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bent Creek’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Bent Creek ranks: 2,624th of 5,877 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 2,622 | Thompson Township PA | 1,039 | $82K | 6.5% | 0.9% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,623 | Rawls Springs MS | 1,499 | $47K | 7.3% | 2.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,624 | Bent Creek NC | 1,384 | $72K | 15.6% | 12.5% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,625 | Kenyon MN | 1,885 | $83K | 13.6% | 4.8% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,626 | Gnadenhutten OH | 1,215 | $65K | 7.9% | 2.9% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Bent Creek, 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 Bent Creek: questions
What is the median household income in Bent Creek?
$72,176 (±$28,801) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bent Creek?
15.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bent Creek?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bent Creek work?
1% work in town.
Is Bent Creek walkable?
Bent Creek is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bent Creek without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bent Creek, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bent Creek
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.