Photo: Gerry D · CC BY-SA 3.0Fairmont’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
29.0% of residents live below the poverty line, against 13.0% across North Carolina. The two grades for Fairmont are D− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, 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
Work in Fairmont, in a few figures
Fewer than half of Fairmont workers earn over $40,000 a year
38% of Fairmont’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Few Fairmont workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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; with 730 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Fairmont
On income, poverty and job access, Fairmont is better than 4% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Fairmont’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($36,641, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (7.8%) is left out: Fairmont’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Fairmont could be anywhere from D− to D.
What Fairmont’s employers do
733 jobs are based in Fairmont.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fairmont, 2013 → 2023: 709 → 733. 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 Fairmont’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Fairmont’s commute, mile by mile
About 30% 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.
The daily trip from Fairmont: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fairmont workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 785 commuters (the 2% 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.
A workday in Fairmont: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 672 residents head out to work, 58 work right here, and 675 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 (1.00 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.
25% of working residents work in Lumberton
Where Fairmont clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
Few in Fairmont walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fairmont is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 801 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). 18.5% of Fairmont households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Fairmont’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fairmont next to U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Avery Creek NC | 2,887 | $113K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,810 | Aitkin MN | 2,155 | $48K | 22.1% | 4.0% | 38% | D− |
| 4,811 | Moorhead MS | 1,754 | $35K | 25.6% | 20.1% | 2% | D− |
| 4,812 | Fairmont NC | 2,231 | $37K | 29.0% | 7.8% | 8% | D− |
| 4,813 | Romney WV | 1,767 | $49K | 25.9% | 10.3% | 14% | D− |
| 4,814 | Frazier Park CA | 2,681 | $48K | 22.2% | 6.2% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,102 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Fairmont, 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 Fairmont: questions
What is the median household income in Fairmont?
$36,641 (±$5,639) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fairmont?
29.0%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fairmont?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fairmont work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lumberton (25%, 11 mi), Fayetteville (5%, 41 mi), Raleigh (4%, 96 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fairmont walkable?
Fairmont is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fairmont without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fairmont, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fairmont
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.