Baldwin's Mill · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Briar Chapel has higher household incomes than 97% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Briar Chapel A−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Below the poverty line: 0.6% of residents, where North Carolina as a whole has 13.0%. 42% of workers work from home; North Carolina has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Briar Chapel: the gist
Home offices are common in Briar Chapel
42% of Briar Chapel workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Time on the road ↓
Briar Chapel is a place people come home to
There are 282 jobs based in Briar Chapel, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Briar Chapel has about 3,900 people in it, 35% 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.
What’s behind Briar Chapel’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Briar Chapel is better than 76% of U.S. towns, #59 of 290 in North Carolina. The poverty rate holds Briar Chapel’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down (8.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Briar Chapel could be anywhere from B+ to A.
From Briar Chapel, about 28 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Briar Chapel workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,601 commuters (the 42% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Briar Chapel
On a workday 2,390 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 245 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,900 people are in Briar Chapel on a workday afternoon, 35% fewer than live here.
0.12 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.
25% of working residents work in Chapel Hill
Where Briar Chapel clocks in
25% of workers
16% of workers
11% 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Briar Chapel
282 jobs are based in Briar Chapel.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Briar Chapel, 2013 → 2023: 63 → 282. 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 Briar Chapel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Briar Chapel commutes
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.
Briar Chapel is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Briar Chapel is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns, #168 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.9% 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 2,752 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 Briar Chapel households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Briar Chapel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Briar Chapel next to U.S. towns of 4,200 to 8,200: 935th of 3,444 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 296 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 395 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 933 | Linwood Township MN | 5,403 | $116K | 6.7% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| 934 | Massac KY | 4,698 | $93K | 10.1% | 0.0% | 2% | A− |
| 935 | Briar Chapel NC | 6,049 | $166K | 0.6% | 8.2% | 2% | A− |
| 936 | Nephi UT | 7,488 | $106K | 4.9% | 1.6% | 36% | A− |
| 937 | Hampden ME | 8,078 | $112K | 7.5% | 2.4% | 11% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,444 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Briar Chapel, 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 Briar Chapel: questions
What is the median household income in Briar Chapel?
$166,063 (±$13,257) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Briar Chapel?
0.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Briar Chapel?
28 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 42% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Briar Chapel work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chapel Hill (25%, 8 mi), Durham (16%, 16 mi), Raleigh (11%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Briar Chapel walkable?
Briar Chapel is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Briar Chapel without a car?
1% 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 Briar Chapel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Briar Chapel
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.