Dallas Graded and High School · Photo: RoxylovesHistory · CC BY-SA 3.0Dallas has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers (North Carolina 16%). 1,309 jobs are based in Dallas, against 3,036 working residents. For jobs and income Dallas is better than 49% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Dallas, in a few figures
Few Dallas workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
36% of the jobs based in Dallas are held by workers 29 or younger, against 25% of Dallas’ own working residents. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Dallas
54% of Dallas residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 36% of the jobs based in Dallas pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 97% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
28% of Dallas works in Charlotte
841 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Charlotte, 21 miles away. That’s 9 times as many as work in Dallas itself. The commute map ↓
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.
The four measures behind Dallas’ grade
Job access by car holds Dallas’ grade up (ahead of 81% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($58,403, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dallas could be anywhere from C to A−.
How long Dallas spends getting to work: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dallas workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,328 commuters (the 4% 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 Dallas
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dallas, 2013 → 2023: 1,321 → 1,309. 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 Dallas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
28% of working residents work in Charlotte
Where Dallas clocks in
28% of workers
21% of workers
2% 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 people are in Dallas by day
On a workday 2,949 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 1,222 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,700 people are in Dallas on a workday afternoon, 27% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
How far Dallas’ workers travel
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.
For most of Dallas, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% 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 3,450 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 4.2% of Dallas households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dallas’ commuters take a bus or train.
Dallas next to U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,600: 1,854th of 3,255 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 175 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 338 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,852 | West Lincoln Township IL | 7,252 | $60K | 11.7% | 2.6% | 28% | B− |
| 1,853 | Jefferson Township OH | 4,986 | $72K | 7.2% | 4.5% | 10% | B− |
| 1,854 | Dallas NC | 6,392 | $58K | 10.5% | 4.5% | 3% | B− |
| 1,855 | Ellicott NY | 8,558 | $61K | 11.0% | 2.5% | 19% | B− |
| 1,856 | Towamensing Township PA | 4,610 | $69K | 6.5% | 5.0% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,255 | 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 Dallas, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
21% of Dallas works in a town next door
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Gastonia. Darker towns draw more of Dallas’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 Dallas: questions
What is the median household income in Dallas?
$58,403 (±$6,867) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dallas?
10.5%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dallas?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dallas work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlotte (28%, 21 mi), Gastonia (21%, 5 mi), Belmont (2%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dallas walkable?
Dallas is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dallas without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dallas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dallas
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.