Photo: Gerry Dincher from Hope Mills, NC · CC BY-SA 2.0Coats’ household incomes are lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
21.6% of residents live below the poverty line, against 13.0% across North Carolina. The two grades for Coats are D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. 2% of workers have no commute at all; North Carolina has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Coats, in brief
Coats’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Coats is Raleigh, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (113) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Coats workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 25 across North Carolina. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Coats
51% of Coats residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 31% of the jobs based in Coats pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 97% leave town for their job. 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 928 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Coats’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Coats is better than 10% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Coats’ grade up (ahead of 43% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($37,009, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Coats’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Coats could be anywhere from D to C−.
The commute from Coats, by distance
About 19% 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.
About 33 minutes each way for Coats’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Coats workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 664 commuters (the 2% 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 kinds of work in Coats
598 jobs are based in Coats.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Coats, 2013 → 2023: 565 → 598. 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 Coats’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Coats on a workday afternoon
On a workday 903 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 573 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Coats on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.64 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.
12% of working residents work in Raleigh
Where Coats clocks in
12% of workers
6% 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.
Most of Coats commutes by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 681 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). 2.8% of Coats households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Coats’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Coats is 4,353rd of 4,995 U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Avery Creek NC | 2,887 | $113K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,351 | Swift Trail Junction AZ | 2,859 | $63K | 16.2% | 0.0% | 2% | D |
| 4,352 | Perryman MD | 2,174 | $35K | 35.1% | 12.8% | 2% | D |
| 4,353 | Coats NC | 2,370 | $37K | 21.6% | 3.8% | 3% | D |
| 4,354 | Sanborn Township MI | 2,099 | $62K | 11.7% | 12.5% | 1% | D |
| 4,355 | Schoolcraft Township MI | 2,008 | $55K | 10.3% | 10.9% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Coats, 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 Coats: questions
What is the median household income in Coats?
$37,009 (±$7,777) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Coats?
21.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Coats?
33 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Coats work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (12%, 29 mi), Dunn (6%, 7 mi), Fayetteville (4%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Coats walkable?
Coats is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Coats without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Coats, from the people who make the trip.
More of Coats
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.