Photo: Idawriter · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Leland commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Only 7% work in Leland itself; outside it, Wilmington draws the most (37%, 8 miles). Employers in Leland report 4,864 jobs; 10,333 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Leland is better than 66% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (C).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Leland in brief
Leland has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Leland went from 2,648 in 2013 to 4,864 in 2023, +84%. The jobs ↓
37% of Leland works in Wilmington
3,781 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Wilmington, 8.2 miles away. That’s 5 times as many as work in Leland itself. The commute map ↓
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.
Where Leland’s Jobs & income grade comes from
The poverty rate holds Leland’s grade up (6.1%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Leland could be anywhere from B− to A−.
What Leland’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Leland, 2013 → 2023: 2,648 → 4,864. 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 Leland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Leland’s working residents head each day
Where Leland clocks in
37% of workers
3% of workers
3% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Leland
On a workday 9,572 residents head out to work, 761 work right here, and 4,103 people come in from elsewhere.
About 30,000 people are in Leland on a workday afternoon, 15% 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.
Leland’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Leland workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,258 commuters (the 18% 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 far Leland’s workers travel
About 24% 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.
Getting around Leland: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% 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 13,710 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 10% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 1.9% of Leland households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Leland’s commuters take a bus or train.
Leland is 650th of 1,219 U.S. towns of 25,000 to 48,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Matthews NC | 32,769 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 89 | Morrisville NC | 32,466 | $125K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 135 | Cornelius NC | 35,094 | $114K | 5.4% | 2.4% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 648 | Perry Township OH | 28,259 | $69K | 10.1% | 2.8% | 8% | B+ |
| 649 | Hanover Park IL | 36,568 | $92K | 12.5% | 5.0% | 3% | B+ |
| 650 | Leland NC | 35,731 | $92K | 6.1% | 4.7% | 7% | B+ |
| 651 | Parkville MD | 30,549 | $79K | 8.6% | 5.0% | 2% | B+ |
| 652 | Clinton MS | 26,640 | $75K | 9.6% | 3.2% | 14% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,219 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Leland, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Next door to Leland
The biggest share goes to Belville (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Leland’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 Leland: questions
What is the median household income in Leland?
$91,977 (±$5,999) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Leland?
6.1%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Leland?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Leland work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (37%, 8 mi), Raleigh (3%, 119 mi), Charlotte (3%, 174 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Leland walkable?
Leland is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Leland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Leland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Leland
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.