Photo: Gerry Dincher from Hope Mills, NC · CC BY-SA 2.0Households in Dunn have lower incomes than those in 91% of U.S. towns
Dunn grades C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Below the poverty line: 19.7% of residents, where North Carolina as a whole has 13.0%. For 8% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Dunn and work: the main findings
Dunn draws workers from far and wide
The 5,107 jobs in Dunn are filled from a wide area. Dunn’s own residents hold 8% and the ten next-biggest home towns 17%; the other 75% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Dunn’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dunn is Raleigh, 36 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (423) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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.
How Dunn earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dunn is better than 28% of U.S. towns, #193 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment holds Dunn’s grade up (3.2%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($46,830, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dunn could be anywhere from C− to C+.
12% of working residents work in Raleigh
Where Dunn clocks in
12% of workers
7% 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.
Dunn’s commute, mile by mile
About 19% 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.
In and out of Dunn on a workday
On a workday 3,048 residents head out to work, 418 work right here, and 4,689 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Dunn on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 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.
Jobs in Dunn: what the 5,107 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dunn, 2013 → 2023: 6,322 → 5,107. 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 Dunn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Dunn: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dunn workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,309 commuters (the 8% 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.
Dunn is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dunn is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #59 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 3,595 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). 9.8% of Dunn households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dunn’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Dunn is 2,262nd of 2,878 U.S. towns of 6,200 to 11,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 3 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 196 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 365 | Summerfield NC | 11,327 | $160K | 7.1% | 2.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 372 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,260 | Globe AZ | 7,191 | $69K | 16.4% | 3.0% | 30% | C |
| 2,261 | Dade City FL | 10,173 | $70K | 11.2% | 8.1% | 8% | C |
| 2,262 | Dunn NC | 8,814 | $47K | 19.7% | 3.2% | 12% | C |
| 2,263 | Town of Pecos TX | 10,386 | $61K | 16.9% | 2.6% | 30% | C |
| 2,264 | Wabash IN | 10,190 | $53K | 14.0% | 4.4% | 38% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,878 | 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 Dunn, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Work in the towns next to Dunn
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Dunn’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 Dunn: questions
What is the median household income in Dunn?
$46,830 (±$6,780) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dunn?
19.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dunn?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dunn work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (12%, 36 mi), Fayetteville (7%, 26 mi), Lillington (3%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dunn walkable?
Dunn is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dunn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dunn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dunn
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.