Otto King House · Photo: Zura1924 · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Dana works elsewhere
4% of workers work from home, where North Carolina as a whole has 16%. 314 jobs are based in Dana; 1,595 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn Dana C−; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Dana at work: what stands out
Dana is a place people come home to
There are 314 jobs based in Dana, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Dana has about 2,900 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Dana makes and builds things
40% of the jobs based in Dana are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dana residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Dana
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dana is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #240 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Dana’s grade up (ahead of 49% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (24.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dana could be anywhere from D to B.
Who leaves Dana for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,573 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 292 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,900 people are in Dana on a workday afternoon, 31% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 40% of the jobs in Dana
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dana, 2013 → 2023: 276 → 314. 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 Dana’s own residents hold wherever they work.
20% of working residents work in Hendersonville
Where Dana clocks in
20% of workers
3% 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.
Commuting from Dana: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dana workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,580 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.
Where in the region Dana works
About 17% 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.
Most trips from Dana start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dana is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns, #278 of 290 in North Carolina. Both inputs place Dana near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,654 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). 2.9% of Dana households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dana’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,600, Dana ranks 3,452nd of 4,112 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 87 | Jamestown NC | 3,803 | $105K | 2.5% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 188 | Fairview NC | 3,805 | $99K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 285 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,450 | Madisonville TX | 4,605 | $67K | 13.5% | 8.7% | 24% | C− |
| 3,451 | Bainbridge NY | 2,995 | $60K | 12.4% | 5.4% | 9% | C− |
| 3,452 | Dana NC | 4,147 | $60K | 24.7% | 6.4% | 1% | C− |
| 3,453 | Scissors TX | 4,267 | $41K | 33.0% | 5.8% | 0% | C− |
| 3,454 | Iola KS | 5,240 | $54K | 8.6% | 8.4% | 37% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,112 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Dana, 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 Dana: questions
What is the median household income in Dana?
$60,450 (±$17,111) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dana?
24.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dana?
22 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 Dana work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hendersonville (20%, 5 mi), Asheville (13%, 20 mi), Charlotte (3%, 87 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dana walkable?
Dana is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dana 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 Dana, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dana
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.