Singletary-Reese-Robinson House · Photo: Upstateherd · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Laurel Park commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
407 jobs are based in Laurel Park; 811 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Laurel Park is better than 74% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (C). The trip to work takes 23 minutes on average (North Carolina 25, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Laurel Park earns its Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate is its strongest input (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Laurel Park’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Laurel Park could be anywhere from B− to A.
How a workday changes Laurel Park
On a workday 788 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 384 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Laurel Park on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
20% of working residents work in Hendersonville
Where Laurel Park clocks in
20% of workers
4% 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.
Laurel Park is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laurel Park, 2013 → 2023: 483 → 407. 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 Laurel Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Laurel Park
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laurel Park workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 812 commuters (the 15% 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 Laurel Park commutes less than 11 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.
Driving is how Laurel Park gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 954 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). 2.4% of Laurel Park households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Laurel Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,995 U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200, Laurel Park comes 1,009th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Avery Creek NC | 2,887 | $113K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,007 | Moville IA | 1,708 | $96K | 3.4% | 2.4% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,008 | Florida NY | 2,852 | $123K | 6.8% | 4.6% | 8% | B+ |
| 1,009 | Laurel Park NC | 2,360 | $90K | 5.5% | 2.9% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,010 | Manchester ME | 2,492 | $92K | 4.5% | 2.5% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,011 | Valley Township MI | 2,337 | $87K | 8.3% | 0.3% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Laurel Park, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Work next door: 20% of Laurel Park’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Laurel Park workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurel Park | – | B+ | C | 23 min | $90,000 |
| Valley Hill | under 2% | A− | C− | 21 min | $86,599 |
| Hendersonville | 20% | C+ | A− | 19 min | $53,449 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hendersonville. Darker towns draw more of Laurel Park’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 Laurel Park: questions
What is the median household income in Laurel Park?
$90,000 (±$17,731) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laurel Park?
5.5%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laurel Park?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laurel Park work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hendersonville (20%, 3 mi), Asheville (15%, 18 mi), Charlotte (4%, 95 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laurel Park walkable?
Laurel Park is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laurel Park without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laurel Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laurel Park
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.