Photo: DiscoA340 · CC BY-SA 4.0Mount Gilead’s household incomes are lower than in 76% of U.S. towns
7% of workers have no commute at all (North Carolina 16%). 16.8% of residents live below the poverty line; North Carolina has 13.0%. The two grades for Mount Gilead are D for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Mount Gilead: the gist
Mount Gilead’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mount Gilead is Charlotte, 47 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (51) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Jobs in Mount Gilead have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Mount Gilead went from 361 in 2013 to 752 in 2023, +108%. The jobs ↓
Mount Gilead is where the jobs are
Mount Gilead has 752 jobs, 1.6 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; with 485 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Mount Gilead’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Mount Gilead is better than 11% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mount Gilead’s grade.
Unemployment (7.3%) is left out: Mount Gilead’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Mount Gilead could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Near or far: the trip to work from Mount Gilead
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.
49% of the jobs in Mount Gilead make or build things
752 jobs are based in Mount Gilead.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Gilead, 2013 → 2023: 361 → 752. 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 Mount Gilead’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Mount Gilead
On a workday 444 residents head out to work, 41 work right here, and 711 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Mount Gilead on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.
1.6 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.
Commuting in to Mount Gilead: where workers come from
Where Mount Gilead clocks in
11% of workers
9% 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 trip from Mount Gilead: 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 Mount Gilead workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 556 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.
In Mount Gilead, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Gilead is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mount Gilead near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 597 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). 6.1% of Mount Gilead households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Gilead’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Gilead places 3,456th of 4,312 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 248 | Montreat NC | 1,024 | $116K | 0.0% | 9.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 281 | Advance NC | 1,408 | $115K | 5.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,454 | Indian Lake MO | 1,135 | $71K | 27.6% | 16.3% | 1% | D |
| 3,455 | Oakwood IL | 1,274 | $46K | 24.8% | 2.3% | 4% | D |
| 3,456 | Mount Gilead NC | 1,187 | $59K | 16.8% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 3,457 | Ferron UT | 1,522 | $71K | 17.7% | 7.6% | 8% | D |
| 3,458 | Athens WV | 1,184 | $57K | 19.4% | 5.7% | <1% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Mount Gilead, 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 Mount Gilead: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Gilead?
$58,885 (±$17,736) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Gilead?
16.8%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Gilead?
25 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 Mount Gilead work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlotte (11%, 47 mi), Albemarle (9%, 14 mi), Troy (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Gilead walkable?
Mount Gilead is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Gilead 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 Mount Gilead, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Gilead
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.