Photo: Property of PLCMC · CC BY-SA 2.0Households in Cornelius earn more than those in 86% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 5.4% of residents, next to 13.0% across North Carolina. Jobs and income earn Cornelius A; getting around on foot earns it A−. Working from home is the commute for 28% of workers, against 16% across North Carolina.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cornelius, in a few figures
Cornelius trades workers with the towns around it
Cornelius has about as many jobs (12,995) as working residents (14,549), but they are mostly different people: 13,156 residents leave for work each day while 11,602 people come in. Only 11% of the jobs in Cornelius are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
39% of Cornelius works in Charlotte
5,664 working residents, 39%, have their main job in Charlotte, 18 miles away. That’s 4 times as many as work in Cornelius itself. The commute map ↓
A lot of Cornelius works from home
28% of Cornelius workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Time on the road ↓
Cornelius has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cornelius went from 8,177 in 2013 to 12,995 in 2023, +59%. 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.
Jobs & income in Cornelius: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cornelius is better than 93% of U.S. towns, #14 of 290 in North Carolina. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cornelius’ grade. It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cornelius could be anywhere from A− to A+.
Who commutes out of Cornelius, and who commutes in
On a workday 13,156 residents head out to work, 1,393 work right here, and 11,602 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.89 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.
39% of working residents work in Charlotte
Where Cornelius clocks in
39% of workers
7% 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.
The daily trip from Cornelius: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cornelius workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 12,052 commuters (the 28% 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 12,995 jobs based in Cornelius
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cornelius, 2013 → 2023: 8,177 → 12,995. 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 Cornelius’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Cornelius goes to work
About 15% 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.
Cornelius is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 16,793 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, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 2.9% of Cornelius households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Cornelius’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 25,000 to 47,000, Cornelius ranks 132nd of 1,194 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Matthews NC | 32,769 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Morrisville NC | 32,466 | $125K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 130 | Medford Township NJ | 25,612 | $158K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 10% | A |
| 131 | Homer Township IL | 41,948 | $136K | 4.5% | 4.0% | 7% | A |
| 132 | Cornelius NC | 35,094 | $114K | 5.4% | 2.4% | 10% | A |
| 133 | Mechanicsville VA | 38,683 | $99K | 5.2% | 1.9% | 11% | A |
| 134 | Bethel Park PA | 32,074 | $107K | 4.0% | 2.8% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 442 | Indian Trail NC | 44,303 | $108K | 5.4% | 5.3% | 8% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,194 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Cornelius, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Cornelius and its neighbors: 11% work next door
The biggest share goes to Huntersville (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cornelius workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornelius | – | A | A− | 25 min | $113,767 |
| Huntersville | 7% | A | B+ | 27 min | $120,516 |
| Davidson | 4% | A− | A | 24 min | $166,556 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cornelius’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 Cornelius: questions
What is the median household income in Cornelius?
$113,767 (±$8,905) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cornelius?
5.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cornelius?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cornelius work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlotte (39%, 18 mi), Huntersville (7%, 4 mi), Mooresville (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cornelius walkable?
Cornelius is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cornelius without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cornelius, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cornelius
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.