Photo: Yuming Huang · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Kill Devil Hills (7.1%) is higher than in 83% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Kill Devil Hills is better than 34% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in five stay in Kill Devil Hills for work; outside it, Nags Head is the main destination (13%, 6 miles). A typical one-way commute lasts 21 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Kill Devil Hills in brief
Where Kill Devil Hills’ Jobs & income grade comes from
Household income holds Kill Devil Hills’ grade up ($89,773, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kill Devil Hills could be anywhere from C− to B+.
In and out of Kill Devil Hills on a workday
On a workday 2,796 residents head out to work, 784 work right here, and 2,430 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 (0.90 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 towns that employ Kill Devil Hills’ residents
Where Kill Devil Hills clocks in
13% of workers
5% 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 Kill Devil Hills: 3,214 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kill Devil Hills, 2013 → 2023: 3,016 → 3,214. 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 Kill Devil Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Kill Devil Hills spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kill Devil Hills workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,511 commuters (the 14% 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 many miles Kill Devil Hills commutes
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.
The commute in Kill Devil Hills is mostly behind the wheel
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.9% 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 4,077 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). 2.9% of Kill Devil Hills households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Kill Devil Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Kill Devil Hills is 2,189th of 3,051 U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,400 on jobs and income
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 188 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 359 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 401 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,187 | Harvard IL | 9,504 | $68K | 11.8% | 7.6% | 14% | C |
| 2,188 | Volney NY | 5,660 | $75K | 14.6% | 5.1% | 6% | C |
| 2,189 | Kill Devil Hills NC | 7,731 | $90K | 9.1% | 7.1% | 22% | C |
| 2,190 | Batavia NY | 7,096 | $67K | 9.2% | 7.0% | 12% | C |
| 2,191 | St. Gabriel LA | 6,987 | $75K | 17.6% | 8.3% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,051 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Kill Devil Hills, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Bordering towns draw 24% of Kill Devil Hills’ workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Kill Devil Hills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kill Devil Hills | – | C | B+ | 21 min | $89,773 |
| Nags Head | 13% | A− | C+ | 23 min | $91,264 |
| Kitty Hawk | 11% | C+ | B− | 24 min | $94,450 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Nags Head. Darker towns draw more of Kill Devil Hills’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 Kill Devil Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Kill Devil Hills?
$89,773 (±$19,071) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kill Devil Hills?
9.1%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kill Devil Hills?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kill Devil Hills work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nags Head (13%, 6 mi), Kitty Hawk (11%, 4 mi), Manteo (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kill Devil Hills walkable?
Kill Devil Hills is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 9.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kill Devil Hills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kill Devil Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kill Devil Hills
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.