Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0Franklin’s household incomes are lower than in 90% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 5% of workers, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole. 12.7% of residents live below the poverty line; North Carolina has 13.0%. The two grades for Franklin are C for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Franklin in brief
Franklin draws workers from far and wide
The 5,461 jobs in Franklin are filled from a wide area. Franklin’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 4%; the other 87% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Franklin has far more jobs than workers
Franklin has 5,461 jobs, 3.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 8,200 people are in town, 87% more than the 4,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
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’s behind Franklin’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Franklin is better than 31% of U.S. towns, #188 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment holds Franklin’s grade up (2.3%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($47,888, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Franklin could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Franklin’s workers come from
Where Franklin clocks in
3% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Franklin
On a workday 1,144 residents head out to work, 507 work right here, and 4,954 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,200 people are in Franklin on a workday afternoon, 87% more than live here.
3.3 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 Franklin: what the 5,461 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Franklin, 2013 → 2023: 5,075 → 5,461. 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 Franklin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way for Franklin’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Franklin workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,849 commuters (the 5% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Franklin
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.
In Franklin, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Franklin is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #116 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% 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 1,946 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). 5.6% of Franklin households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Franklin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Franklin is 2,810th of 3,908 U.S. towns of 3,100 to 5,900 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Jamestown NC | 3,803 | $105K | 2.5% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 184 | Fairview NC | 3,805 | $99K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 282 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,808 | Green Township PA | 3,388 | $60K | 12.4% | 3.3% | 7% | C |
| 2,809 | Suquamish WA | 4,084 | $86K | 11.3% | 6.5% | 9% | C |
| 2,810 | Franklin NC | 4,403 | $48K | 12.7% | 2.3% | 31% | C |
| 2,811 | Creedmoor NC | 5,046 | $83K | 18.2% | 8.2% | 2% | C |
| 2,812 | Slaughterville OK | 4,332 | $73K | 13.7% | 6.3% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,908 | 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 Franklin, 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 Franklin: questions
What is the median household income in Franklin?
$47,888 (±$4,336) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Franklin?
12.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Franklin?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Franklin work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Asheville (6%, 54 mi), Sylva (3%, 16 mi), Highlands (2%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Franklin walkable?
Franklin is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Franklin without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Franklin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Franklin
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.