Photo: Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 4.0College students make up 72% of Cullowhee’s residents
For jobs and income Cullowhee is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A). About one in seven work in Cullowhee itself; outside it, Sylva draws the most (14%, 5 miles). 10% of workers have no commute at all (North Carolina 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Cullowhee apart on work
Nearly all the work in Cullowhee is services
100% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 0% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
A young workforce
37% of Cullowhee’s working residents are 29 or younger, about one in three. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Cullowhee are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical North Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
The jobs in Cullowhee pay better than its residents’ jobs
59% of the jobs based in Cullowhee pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 44% of the jobs Cullowhee residents hold. 89% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Cullowhee. 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.
Inside Cullowhee’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cullowhee’s grade.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (48% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 19.0%, against 45.8% for all residents. Unemployment (11.8%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($76,513), since student households pull the household median down ($35,929).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Cullowhee could be anywhere from D− to B+.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Cullowhee
2,290 jobs are based in Cullowhee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cullowhee, 2013 → 2023: 1,733 → 2,290. 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 Cullowhee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes to work from Cullowhee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cullowhee workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,293 commuters (the 10% 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 Cullowhee
On a workday 1,647 residents head out to work, 251 work right here, and 2,039 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 (1.21 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.
Where the trip to work from Cullowhee ends
Where Cullowhee clocks in
14% 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.
Miles to work from Cullowhee
About 29% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Cullowhee
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,664 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). 3.1% of Cullowhee households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cullowhee’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 5,600 to 10,800, and where Cullowhee sits
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 369 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 409 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,832 | Ishpeming MI | 6,205 | $53K | 18.7% | 6.4% | 25% | D |
| 2,833 | Ocean Shores WA | 7,892 | $58K | 12.3% | 7.3% | 27% | D |
| 2,834 | Cullowhee NC | 7,973 | $36K | 45.8% | 11.8% | 13% | D |
| 2,835 | Salida del Sol Estates TX | 7,766 | $36K | 43.1% | 5.9% | 1% | D |
| 2,836 | Cairo GA | 10,150 | $41K | 28.8% | 5.2% | 28% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,015 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Cullowhee, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
How Cullowhee compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Cullowhee workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cullowhee | – | D | A | 19 min | $35,929 |
| Forest Hills | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Forest Hills: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Cullowhee’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.
- Students. 72% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cullowhee: questions
What is the median household income in Cullowhee?
$35,929 (±$9,937) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cullowhee?
45.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 19.0%. North Carolina: 13.0%.
How long is the commute from Cullowhee?
19 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cullowhee work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sylva (14%, 5 mi), Charlotte (5%, 133 mi), Asheville (4%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cullowhee walkable?
Cullowhee is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cullowhee 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 Cullowhee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cullowhee
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.