Carpenter Historic District · Photo: KimWrenn · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Cary top those of 93% of U.S. towns
36% of workers work from home; North Carolina has 16%. Poverty touches 5.7% of residents, against 13.0% across North Carolina. The two grades for Cary are A for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cary: the figures worth knowing
Home offices are common in Cary
37% of Cary workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Cary works one town over
44% of working residents work in a town that borders Cary: Raleigh (24%), Durham (13%) and Morrisville (4%). Next door ↓
Cary has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cary went from 73,727 in 2013 to 99,607 in 2023, +35%. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Why Cary gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cary is better than 91% of U.S. towns, #19 of 290 in North Carolina. Household income is its strongest input ($134,905, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cary stays A.
About 23 minutes to work from Cary
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cary workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 59,677 commuters (the 37% 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.
65% of the jobs in Cary pay over $3,333 a month
99,607 jobs are based in Cary.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cary, 2013 → 2023: 73,727 → 99,607. 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 Cary’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Cary by day
On a workday 66,327 residents head out to work, 15,084 work right here, and 84,523 people come in from elsewhere.
About 202,000 people are in Cary on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.22 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.
24% of working residents work in Raleigh
Where Cary clocks in
24% of workers
13% of workers
5% 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 many miles Cary commutes
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.
For most of Cary, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cary is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #56 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% 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 93,989 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 45% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 3% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 81% 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). 3.2% of Cary households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Cary’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Among U.S. towns of 129,000 to 248,000, Cary ranks 9th of 158 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pearland TX | 129,930 | $119K | 4.1% | 3.3% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Naperville IL | 153,114 | $155K | 4.4% | 4.5% | 17% | A |
| 8 | McKinney TX | 236,001 | $124K | 5.7% | 3.7% | 13% | A |
| 9 | Cary NC | 183,582 | $135K | 5.7% | 3.5% | 19% | A |
| 10 | Fremont CA | 226,442 | $182K | 5.2% | 4.7% | 17% | A |
| 11 | Sunnyvale CA | 156,577 | $186K | 5.8% | 4.5% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 145 | Fayetteville NC | 209,120 | $58K | 17.7% | 7.9% | 43% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Macon-Bibb County GA | 157,556 | $51K | 24.7% | 8.1% | 53% | 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 Cary, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
The towns next door employ 44% of Cary
The biggest share goes to Raleigh (24%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cary workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cary | – | A | B+ | 23 min | $134,905 |
| Morrisville | 4% | A+ | B | 22 min | $125,396 |
| Raleigh | 24% | B | A | 23 min | $85,395 |
| Apex | 2% | A | A− | 25 min | $144,135 |
| Durham | 13% | B+ | A | 22 min | $81,619 |
| Holly Springs | 1% | A | B | 29 min | $135,578 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cary’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 Cary: questions
What is the median household income in Cary?
$134,905 (±$3,712) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cary?
5.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cary?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 36% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cary work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (24%, 11 mi), Durham (13%, 14 mi), Charlotte (5%, 120 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cary walkable?
Cary is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cary without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 3% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cary, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cary
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.