Big Rockfish Presbyterian Church · Photo: Gerry Dincher · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Hope Mills (8.2%) is higher than in 89% of U.S. towns
9% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole. For jobs and income Hope Mills is better than 28% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (C). Household incomes here are lower than in 65% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Hope Mills, in a few figures
Hope Mills and Fayetteville trade workers both ways
Fayetteville is the top workplace for Hope Mills residents (39%) and also where the most people who work in Hope Mills come from (27% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Hope Mills has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Hope Mills went from 3,353 in 2013 to 5,033 in 2023, +50%. The jobs ↓
Hope Mills draws workers from far and wide
The 5,033 jobs in Hope Mills are filled from a wide area. Hope Mills’ own residents hold 6% and the ten next-biggest home towns 33%; the other 61% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Many jobs in Hope Mills pay little
29% of the jobs based in Hope Mills pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 36% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Hope Mills
49% of Hope Mills residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 30% of the jobs based in Hope Mills pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 95% leave town for their job. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Hope Mills
Job access by car holds Hope Mills’ grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hope Mills could be anywhere from C− to C+.
39% of working residents work in Fayetteville
Where Hope Mills clocks in
39% of workers
4% 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.
What work there is in Hope Mills: 5,033 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hope Mills, 2013 → 2023: 3,353 → 5,033. 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 Hope Mills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Hope Mills by day and by night
On a workday 5,889 residents head out to work, 320 work right here, and 4,713 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 (0.81 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.
About 27 minutes each way for Hope Mills’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hope Mills workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,736 commuters (the 9% 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.
Half of Hope Mills commutes less than 11 miles
About 28% 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.
Hope Mills is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% 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 7,414 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). 4.8% of Hope Mills households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hope Mills’ commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Hope Mills is 1,567th of 1,915 U.S. towns of 13,000 to 25,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Weddington NC | 14,517 | $191K | 4.0% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Harrisburg NC | 20,742 | $148K | 3.7% | 3.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Wendell NC | 19,687 | $96K | 3.2% | 1.3% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,565 | Gardner MA | 21,483 | $68K | 13.7% | 7.0% | 18% | C |
| 1,566 | Neosho MO | 14,078 | $58K | 15.2% | 4.5% | 28% | C |
| 1,567 | Hope Mills NC | 18,324 | $66K | 14.1% | 8.2% | 5% | C |
| 1,568 | Albert Lea MN | 18,217 | $65K | 12.8% | 5.7% | 54% | C |
| 1,569 | Ferguson MO | 17,953 | $48K | 24.2% | 5.9% | 3% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,915 | 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 Hope Mills, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Next door is work for 39% of Hope Mills
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hope Mills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hope Mills | – | C | C | 27 min | $65,774 |
| Fayetteville | 39% | C− | A− | 19 min | $58,407 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Fayetteville. Darker towns draw more of Hope Mills’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 Hope Mills: questions
What is the median household income in Hope Mills?
$65,774 (±$4,054) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hope Mills?
14.1%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hope Mills?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hope Mills work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fayetteville (39%, 8 mi), Raleigh (4%, 62 mi), Charlotte (2%, 107 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hope Mills walkable?
Hope Mills is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hope Mills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hope Mills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hope Mills
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.