Photo: KimWrenn · CC BY-SA 3.0Henderson’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers (North Carolina 16%). Below the poverty line: 27.3% of residents; North Carolina has 13.0%. Henderson grades D 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
Getting to work from Henderson, in brief
Henderson trades workers with the towns around it
Henderson has about as many jobs (7,155) as working residents (6,012), but they are mostly different people: 5,001 residents leave for work each day while 6,144 people come in. Only 14% of the jobs in Henderson are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Henderson draws workers from far and wide
The 7,155 jobs in Henderson are filled from a wide area. Henderson’s own residents hold 14% and the ten next-biggest home towns 12%; the other 74% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Henderson’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Henderson is Raleigh, 36 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (646) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Henderson workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Henderson’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
The figures behind Henderson’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Henderson’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($39,969, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Henderson could be anywhere from D− to D.
Who commutes out of Henderson, and who commutes in
On a workday 5,001 residents head out to work, 1,011 work right here, and 6,144 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 (1.19 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.
11% of working residents work in Raleigh
Where Henderson clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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.
Half of Henderson commutes less than 32 miles
About 22% 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.
What work there is in Henderson: 7,155 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Henderson, 2013 → 2023: 8,006 → 7,155. 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 Henderson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Henderson: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Henderson workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,690 commuters (the 6% 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.
The commute in Henderson is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Henderson is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns, #95 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% 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 6,062 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). 14.5% of Henderson households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Henderson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Henderson and other U.S. towns of 11,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Weddington NC | 14,517 | $191K | 4.0% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 193 | Wendell NC | 19,687 | $96K | 3.2% | 1.3% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 231 | Rolesville NC | 12,839 | $150K | 1.1% | 3.7% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,945 | Portales NM | 11,734 | $51K | 28.1% | 7.4% | 41% | D |
| 1,946 | Rio Grande City TX | 15,451 | $45K | 30.8% | 6.8% | 29% | D |
| 1,947 | Henderson NC | 15,013 | $40K | 27.3% | 9.4% | 17% | D |
| 1,948 | Sterling CO | 13,054 | $43K | 19.0% | 7.8% | 40% | D |
| 1,949 | Aberdeen WA | 17,088 | $52K | 23.8% | 10.0% | 26% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,969 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Henderson, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Henderson and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Henderson workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henderson | – | D | B | 21 min | $39,969 |
| South Henderson | under 1% | — | — | 18 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. South Henderson: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Henderson’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 Henderson: questions
What is the median household income in Henderson?
$39,969 (±$3,213) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Henderson?
27.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Henderson?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Henderson work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (11%, 36 mi), Durham (8%, 36 mi), Oxford (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Henderson walkable?
Henderson is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Henderson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Henderson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Henderson
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.