Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · CC BY-SA 4.0Lexington has lower household incomes than 94% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Lexington is better than 19% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (A−). 27.8% of residents live below the poverty line, where North Carolina as a whole has 13.0%. Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 0.3 in Winston-Salem.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Lexington stands out on work
Lexington draws workers from far and wide
The 12,118 jobs in Lexington are filled from a wide area. Lexington’s own residents hold 11% and the ten next-biggest home towns 21%; the other 68% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Lexington is where the jobs are
Lexington has 12,118 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Lexington
Job access by car holds Lexington’s grade up (ahead of 74% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lexington could be anywhere from D to C.
The towns that send workers to Lexington
Where Lexington clocks in
6% of workers
6% 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.
A workday in Lexington: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 6,627 residents head out to work, 1,346 work right here, and 10,772 people come in from elsewhere.
About 24,000 people are in Lexington on a workday afternoon, 20% more than live here.
1.5 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.
What Lexington’s employers do
12,118 jobs are based in Lexington.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lexington, 2013 → 2023: 12,013 → 12,118. 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 Lexington’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Lexington: about 26 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lexington workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,958 commuters (the 7% 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.
Where in the region Lexington works
About 21% 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: Lexington
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,505 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 7% 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 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 43% 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). 5.6% of Lexington households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lexington’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lexington next to 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,680 | Great Bend KS | 14,266 | $54K | 16.9% | 4.7% | 42% | C− |
| 1,681 | Mount Vernon IL | 14,187 | $55K | 17.3% | 6.3% | 47% | C− |
| 1,682 | Lexington NC | 20,238 | $43K | 27.8% | 6.0% | 17% | C− |
| 1,683 | Fremont OH | 15,765 | $47K | 22.7% | 5.5% | 30% | C− |
| 1,684 | Kerman CA | 17,553 | $60K | 21.3% | 10.4% | 14% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Lexington, 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 Lexington: questions
What is the median household income in Lexington?
$43,128 (±$2,614) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lexington?
27.8%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lexington?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lexington work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Winston-Salem (10%, 21 mi), Charlotte (6%, 51 mi), Greensboro (6%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lexington walkable?
Lexington is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lexington without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lexington, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lexington
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.