Photo: Aaron Hines/City of Greenville · Public domainGreenville’s family incomes are lower than in 74% of U.S. towns
About half work in Greenville; the top destination outside it is Raleigh (4%, 73 miles). Not counting college students, poverty touches 17.2% of residents (North Carolina 12.4%). Jobs and income earn Greenville C; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Greenville, in a few figures
Greenville is where the jobs are
Greenville has 56,958 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Greenville are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical North Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
Greenville draws workers from far and wide
The 56,958 jobs in Greenville are filled from a wide area. Greenville’s own residents hold 29% and the ten next-biggest home towns 12%; the other 59% come from many towns beyond those. 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.
Greenville’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On family income, poverty and job access, Greenville is better than 30% of U.S. towns, #189 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Greenville’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
23% of Greenville’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (20% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 17.2%, against 24.6% for all residents. Unemployment (9.0%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($74,840), since student households pull the household median down ($49,748).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Greenville could be anywhere from C− to C+.
A workday in Greenville: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 19,518 residents head out to work, 16,400 work right here, and 40,558 people come in from elsewhere.
About 117,000 people are in Greenville on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.6 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.
About 19 minutes each way for Greenville’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Greenville workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 38,675 commuters (the 13% 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 Greenville’s workforce comes from
Where Greenville clocks in
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.
Most jobs in Greenville are in services
56,958 jobs are based in Greenville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Greenville, 2013 → 2023: 50,640 → 56,958. 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 Greenville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Greenville’s workers travel
About 25% 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 Greenville, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Greenville is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns, #35 of 290 in North Carolina. Both inputs place Greenville 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 44,631 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). 10.7% of Greenville households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Greenville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Greenville places 383rd of 444 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 68,000 to 130,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| 3 | Bethesda MD | 69,397 | $192K | 4.3% | 3.1% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Huntersville NC | 68,535 | $121K | 3.1% | 3.2% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Apex NC | 80,419 | $144K | 2.2% | 3.8% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Concord NC | 114,598 | $87K | 9.6% | 5.5% | 19% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 381 | Bellingham WA | 96,395 | $67K | 18.6% | 5.6% | 51% | C |
| 382 | Roanoke VA | 99,111 | $55K | 18.3% | 5.6% | 43% | C |
| 383 | Greenville NC | 96,443 | $50K | 24.6% | 9.0% | 46% | C |
| 384 | Yuba City CA | 69,485 | $75K | 14.3% | 7.0% | 26% | C |
| 385 | Dothan AL | 72,060 | $56K | 19.3% | 4.3% | 58% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 444 | Flint MI | 79,306 | $38K | 34.1% | 14.8% | 20% | 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 Greenville, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
How Greenville compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Winterville (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Greenville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville | – | C | A− | 19 min | $49,748 |
| Winterville | 2% | B− | B | 21 min | $83,193 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Greenville’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.
- Students. 23% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Greenville: questions
What is the median household income in Greenville?
$49,748 (±$2,864) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Greenville?
24.6% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 17.2%. North Carolina: 13.0%.
How long is the commute from Greenville?
19 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Greenville work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (4%, 73 mi), Kinston (2%, 25 mi), Winterville (2%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Greenville walkable?
Greenville is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Greenville without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Greenville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Greenville
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.