Cooleemee has lower household incomes than 91% of U.S. towns
1% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole. Below the poverty line: 10.6% of residents (North Carolina 13.0%). The two grades for Cooleemee are C for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Cooleemee, in brief
Cooleemee’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cooleemee is Winston-Salem, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (42) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Cooleemee workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 350 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Cooleemee’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Cooleemee is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cooleemee’s grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($46,750, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Cooleemee’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, Cooleemee could be anywhere from C− to B.
Near or far: the trip to work from Cooleemee
About 18% 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.
Commuting from Cooleemee: about 29 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cooleemee workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 429 commuters (the 1% 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 flow of workers through Cooleemee
On a workday 342 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 226 people come in from elsewhere.
About 890 people are in Cooleemee on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.67 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 Winston-Salem
Where Cooleemee clocks in
11% of workers
9% 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.
The 234 jobs based in Cooleemee
234 jobs are based in Cooleemee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cooleemee, 2013 → 2023: 73 → 234. 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 Cooleemee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting around Cooleemee: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cooleemee is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 4.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 433 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). 6.7% of Cooleemee households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cooleemee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cooleemee places 1,734th of 3,133 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Montreat NC | 1,024 | $116K | 0.0% | 9.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 263 | Stem NC | 1,023 | $96K | 3.0% | 1.1% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 302 | Brandywine Bay NC | 1,313 | $105K | 1.2% | 12.1% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,732 | Fremont WI | 1,363 | $78K | 12.6% | 6.2% | 5% | C |
| 1,733 | Georgetown CO | 1,217 | $79K | 13.4% | 10.5% | 24% | C |
| 1,734 | Cooleemee NC | 1,002 | $47K | 10.6% | 5.3% | 2% | C |
| 1,735 | Perry Township PA | 1,331 | $70K | 9.0% | 2.7% | 6% | C |
| 1,736 | Pinetops NC | 1,198 | $60K | 13.1% | 2.7% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Cooleemee, 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 Cooleemee: questions
What is the median household income in Cooleemee?
$46,750 (±$8,114) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cooleemee?
10.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cooleemee?
29 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cooleemee work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Winston-Salem (12%, 26 mi), Mocksville (11%, 6 mi), Salisbury (9%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cooleemee walkable?
Cooleemee is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cooleemee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cooleemee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cooleemee
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.