Boyette Slave House · Photo: DanTD · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Kenly have lower incomes than those in 78% of U.S. towns
2% of workers work from home (North Carolina 16%). Poverty touches 14.4% of residents, against 13.0% across North Carolina. The two grades for Kenly are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Kenly stands out on work
Kenly is where the jobs are
Kenly has 1,070 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
60% of the jobs in Kenly are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Kenly
51% of Kenly residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 31% of the jobs based in Kenly pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 93% 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; with 641 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Kenly’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Kenly is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Kenly’s grade up (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($57,045, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kenly could be anywhere from D to B+.
How a workday changes Kenly
On a workday 594 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 1,023 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,200 people are in Kenly on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
1.7 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.
Inside Kenly’s 1,070 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kenly, 2013 → 2023: 974 → 1,070. 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 Kenly’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who travels to work in Kenly, and from where
Where Kenly clocks in
12% of workers
12% 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.
Getting to work from Kenly takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kenly workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,028 commuters (the 2% 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.
Miles to work from Kenly
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Kenly
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kenly is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,053 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). 13.8% of Kenly households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kenly’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Kenly is 3,859th of 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 305 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,857 | Cambridge IL | 2,020 | $65K | 13.1% | 7.5% | 12% | C− |
| 3,858 | Northwood IA | 2,056 | $63K | 8.8% | 7.9% | 32% | C− |
| 3,859 | Kenly NC | 1,722 | $57K | 14.4% | 5.3% | 7% | C− |
| 3,860 | Gouldsboro ME | 1,769 | $61K | 7.2% | 0.0% | 13% | C− |
| 3,861 | Ossineke Township MI | 1,650 | $68K | 9.0% | 2.8% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Kenly, 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 Kenly: questions
What is the median household income in Kenly?
$57,045 (±$22,744) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kenly?
14.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kenly?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kenly work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilson (12%, 14 mi), Raleigh (12%, 33 mi), Smithfield (8%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kenly walkable?
Kenly is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kenly 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 Kenly, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kenly
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.