Photo: Property of PLCMC · CC BY-SA 2.0For more than half of its working residents, Matthews is a commute to Charlotte
Only 7% stay in Matthews for work; outside it, Charlotte is the main destination (56%, 9 miles). Jobs and income earn Matthews A+; getting around on foot earns it B. Household incomes here are higher than in 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Matthews, in a few figures
What’s behind Matthews’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Matthews is better than 97% of U.S. towns, #4 of 290 in North Carolina. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Matthews’ grade. It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Matthews could be anywhere from A to A+.
Out of Matthews to work: where people go
Where Matthews clocks in
56% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
How a workday changes Matthews
On a workday 13,208 residents head out to work, 1,018 work right here, and 17,425 people come in from elsewhere.
About 37,000 people are in Matthews on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
The 18,443 jobs based in Matthews
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Matthews, 2013 → 2023: 15,932 → 18,443. 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 Matthews’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way, about the NC average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Matthews workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,061 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 many miles Matthews commutes
About 15% 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 Matthews: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Matthews is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns, #92 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.3% 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 15,929 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 15% 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 10.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 4.3% of Matthews households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Matthews’ commuters take a bus or train.
Matthews is 63rd of 1,283 U.S. towns of 23,000 to 44,000 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Merrimack NH | 29,699 | $127K | 3.0% | 1.9% | 17% | A+ |
| 62 | Erie CO | 40,904 | $173K | 2.3% | 3.1% | 5% | A+ |
| 63 | Matthews NC | 32,769 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A+ |
| 64 | South Windsor CT | 27,036 | $145K | 4.9% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 65 | Shrewsbury MA | 39,627 | $139K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 101 | Morrisville NC | 32,466 | $125K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 148 | Cornelius NC | 35,094 | $114K | 5.4% | 2.4% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 294 | Knightdale NC | 23,144 | $103K | 5.3% | 3.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,283 | 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 Matthews, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
57% of Matthews works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Charlotte. Darker towns draw more of Matthews’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 Matthews: questions
What is the median household income in Matthews?
$108,611 (±$9,129) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Matthews?
3.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Matthews?
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 Matthews work?
7% work in town.
Is Matthews walkable?
Matthews is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Matthews without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Matthews, from the people who make the trip.
More of Matthews
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.