Seaboard Air Line Passenger Depot · Photo: Geradams · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Hamlet are lower than in 95% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 8% of workers (North Carolina 16%). Below the poverty line: 21.6% of residents (North Carolina 13.0%). Hamlet grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Hamlet: the figures worth knowing
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Hamlet
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hamlet is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #272 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Hamlet’s grade up (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($41,590, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hamlet could be anywhere from D− to C.
15% of working residents work in Rockingham
Where Hamlet clocks in
15% of workers
4% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Hamlet
On a workday 2,177 residents head out to work, 217 work right here, and 1,643 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 (0.78 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.
The kinds of work in Hamlet
1,860 jobs are based in Hamlet.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hamlet, 2013 → 2023: 1,690 → 1,860. 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 Hamlet’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Hamlet spends getting to work: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hamlet workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,414 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.
How far Hamlet’s workers travel
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.
Few in Hamlet walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hamlet is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns, #195 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 2,625 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). 18.7% of Hamlet households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hamlet’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Hamlet compares with U.S. towns of 4,100 to 7,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 290 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 388 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,269 | Kosciusko MS | 6,722 | $40K | 25.7% | 5.5% | 32% | D |
| 3,270 | Belen NM | 7,589 | $43K | 31.2% | 8.0% | 16% | D |
| 3,271 | Hamlet NC | 5,870 | $42K | 21.6% | 8.7% | 9% | D |
| 3,272 | Vinita OK | 5,424 | $47K | 21.8% | 6.8% | 31% | D |
| 3,273 | Smithville TN | 5,620 | $33K | 33.4% | 7.4% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,432 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Hamlet, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
The towns around Hamlet
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hamlet workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamlet | – | D | C | 22 min | $41,590 |
| Dobbins Heights | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Dobbins Heights: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hamlet’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 Hamlet: questions
What is the median household income in Hamlet?
$41,590 (±$4,095) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hamlet?
21.6%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hamlet?
22 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 Hamlet work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockingham (15%, 4 mi), Pinehurst (4%, 25 mi), Laurinburg (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hamlet walkable?
Hamlet is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hamlet without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 19% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hamlet, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hamlet
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.