Mars Hill High School · Photo: Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States · CC0Making a living in Mars Hill
For jobs and income Mars Hill is better than 62% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (B+). Only 5% stay in Mars Hill for work; outside it, Asheville is the main destination (28%, 18 miles). Poverty touches 3.3% of residents (North Carolina 13.0%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Mars Hill: the figures worth knowing
28% of Mars Hill works in Asheville
231 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Asheville, 18 miles away. That’s 6 times as many as work in Mars Hill itself. The commute map ↓
Many jobs in Mars Hill pay little
27% of the jobs based in Mars Hill pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 31% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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 816 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Mars Hill’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Mars Hill’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mars Hill could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Where the trip to work from Mars Hill ends
Where Mars Hill clocks in
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.
Inside Mars Hill’s 759 jobs
759 jobs are based in Mars Hill.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mars Hill, 2013 → 2023: 904 → 759. 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 Mars Hill’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Mars Hill
On a workday 777 residents head out to work, 39 work right here, and 720 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.93 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Mars Hill
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mars Hill workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,065 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.
How far Mars Hill goes to work
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.
In Mars Hill, the car does most of the work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 5.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,260 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). 6.4% of Mars Hill households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mars Hill’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Mars Hill is 1,604th among 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Avery Creek NC | 2,887 | $113K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 157 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,602 | Monroe Township OH | 1,673 | $87K | 13.0% | 16.3% | 2% | B |
| 1,603 | Lake of the Woods IL | 2,091 | $62K | 4.7% | 6.2% | <1% | B |
| 1,604 | Mars Hill NC | 2,280 | $81K | 3.3% | 4.5% | 5% | B |
| 1,605 | Conyngham PA | 1,837 | $70K | 5.8% | 1.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,606 | Elkhart Township IN | 2,040 | $79K | 5.7% | 6.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | 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 Mars Hill, 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 Mars Hill: questions
What is the median household income in Mars Hill?
$81,429 (±$8,733) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mars Hill?
3.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mars Hill?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mars Hill work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Asheville (28%, 18 mi), Charlotte (5%, 106 mi), Woodfin (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mars Hill walkable?
Mars Hill is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 5.4 out of 20, and 15% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mars Hill without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mars Hill, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mars Hill
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.