Photo: Morgan Riley; building by Cahoon & Kasten architects (2004) · CC BY 3.0Manteo draws 1,727 commuters a day, with 2.9 jobs for every working resident
For jobs and income Manteo is better than 21% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (A). There are 1,883 jobs in Manteo for 650 working residents. About one in four stay in Manteo for work; outside it, Nags Head is the main destination (14%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Manteo at work: what stands out
Manteo is where the jobs are
Manteo has 1,883 jobs, 2.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,800 people are in town, 78% more than the 1,600 who live here. Day and night ↓
Most Manteo residents work close to home
61% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
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; with 650 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Manteo’s Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Manteo’s grade up ($83,777, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.1%) is left out: Manteo’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Manteo could be anywhere from D to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Manteo
On a workday 494 residents head out to work and 156 work right here.
About 2,800 people are in Manteo on a workday afternoon, 78% more 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.
How far Manteo goes to work
About 26% 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.
Where Manteo’s workers come from
Where Manteo clocks in
14% of workers
8% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Manteo
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manteo, 2013 → 2023: 1,754 → 1,883. 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 Manteo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Manteo spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manteo workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 803 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Manteo
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 930 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). 9.1% of Manteo households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Manteo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Manteo next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100: 3,998th of 5,794 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 296 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,996 | Belfast Township PA | 1,344 | $64K | 9.1% | 3.7% | 1% | C− |
| 3,997 | East Cleveland TN | 1,934 | $49K | 26.5% | 16.6% | 1% | C− |
| 3,998 | Manteo NC | 1,585 | $84K | 19.2% | 6.1% | 24% | C− |
| 3,999 | New Eagle PA | 2,018 | $52K | 15.7% | 10.5% | 4% | C− |
| 4,000 | Sebago ME | 1,995 | $78K | 13.7% | 6.4% | 5% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Manteo, 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 Manteo: questions
What is the median household income in Manteo?
$83,777 (±$15,990) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manteo?
19.2%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Manteo?
24 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 Manteo work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nags Head (14%, 4 mi), Kill Devil Hills (8%, 8 mi), Wanchese (6%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manteo walkable?
Manteo is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manteo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Manteo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manteo
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.