CSS NEUSE (Ironclad Gunboat) · Photo: Katyrw · CC BY-SA 4.0Kinston has lower household incomes than 97% of U.S. towns
Kinston grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability. 27.9% of residents live below the poverty line; North Carolina has 13.0%. 3% of workers have no commute at all; North Carolina has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Kinston apart on work
Kinston is where the jobs are
Kinston has 18,495 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 30,000 people are in town, 54% more than the 20,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Kinston draws workers from far and wide
The 18,495 jobs in Kinston are filled from a wide area. Kinston’s own residents hold 15% and the ten next-biggest home towns 16%; the other 69% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Fewer than half of Kinston workers earn over $40,000 a year
39% of Kinston’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few Kinston workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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.
Jobs & income in Kinston: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Kinston is better than 7% of U.S. towns, #271 of 290 in North Carolina. Job access by car holds Kinston’s grade up (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (16.1%, U.S. 5.2%).
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Kinston stays D.
Who works in Kinston, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 5,142 residents head out to work, 2,736 work right here, and 15,759 people come in from elsewhere.
About 30,000 people are in Kinston on a workday afternoon, 54% more than live here.
2.3 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.
Where Kinston’s workers come from
Where Kinston clocks in
5% 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.
In Kinston, 32% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
18,495 jobs are based in Kinston.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Kinston, 2013 → 2023: 15,034 → 18,495. 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 Kinston’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Kinston: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kinston workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,274 commuters (the 3% 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 from Kinston, by distance
About 27% 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.
For most of Kinston, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Kinston is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #81 of 290 in North Carolina. 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 6,485 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). 17.0% of Kinston households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Kinston’s commuters take a bus or train.
Kinston and other U.S. towns of 14,000 to 27,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Weddington NC | 14,517 | $191K | 4.0% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Harrisburg NC | 20,742 | $148K | 3.7% | 3.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 180 | Wendell NC | 19,687 | $96K | 3.2% | 1.3% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,836 | Alexander City AL | 14,515 | $47K | 25.7% | 6.4% | 35% | D |
| 1,837 | Eloy AZ | 19,967 | $56K | 23.1% | 6.2% | 12% | D |
| 1,838 | Kinston NC | 19,705 | $37K | 27.9% | 16.1% | 35% | D |
| 1,839 | Homosassa Springs FL | 15,701 | $48K | 20.3% | 8.4% | 7% | D |
| 1,840 | Talladega AL | 14,840 | $44K | 25.6% | 12.6% | 22% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,860 | 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 Kinston, 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 Kinston: questions
What is the median household income in Kinston?
$36,878 (±$2,930) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kinston?
27.9%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kinston?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Kinston work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (5%, 70 mi), Greenville (5%, 25 mi), Goldsboro (3%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Kinston walkable?
Kinston is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kinston without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 17% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kinston, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kinston
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.