Photo: Doug Anderson · CC BY 2.0Oak Island has lower unemployment (3.0%) than 70% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 25% of workers; North Carolina has 16%. Jobs and income earn Oak Island B−; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in seven stay in Oak Island for work; outside it, Wilmington is the main destination (11%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Oak Island
Oak Island has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Oak Island went from 1,084 in 2013 to 2,017 in 2023, +86%. The jobs ↓
Home offices are common in Oak Island
25% of Oak Island workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Time on the road ↓
Oak Island’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Oak Island is Wilmington, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (339) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Why Oak Island gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Oak Island is better than 52% of U.S. towns, #121 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment holds Oak Island’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down. It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Oak Island could be anywhere from C to B+.
What the 2,017 jobs in Oak Island are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oak Island, 2013 → 2023: 1,084 → 2,017. 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 Oak Island’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Oak Island: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oak Island workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,664 commuters (the 25% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Oak Island
About 30% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Oak Island
On a workday 2,483 residents head out to work, 469 work right here, and 1,548 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,400 people are in Oak Island on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.68 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
The places Oak Island commutes to
Where Oak Island clocks in
11% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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.
Most trips from Oak Island start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oak Island is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns, #83 of 290 in North Carolina. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 6.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,546 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 3.5% of Oak Island households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Oak Island’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,628th of 2,867: where Oak Island ranks among U.S. towns of 6,500 to 12,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 197 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 369 | Summerfield NC | 11,327 | $160K | 7.1% | 2.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 377 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,626 | Otter Creek Township IN | 9,001 | $72K | 12.2% | 2.5% | 7% | B− |
| 1,627 | Fairfield Glade TN | 9,487 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.0% | 12% | B− |
| 1,628 | Oak Island NC | 9,337 | $86K | 8.7% | 3.0% | 16% | B− |
| 1,629 | Blanchard OK | 10,013 | $91K | 7.9% | 10.1% | 10% | B− |
| 1,630 | Somers WI | 8,171 | $80K | 8.7% | 8.4% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,867 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Oak Island, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Oak Island and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to St. James (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Oak Island workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oak Island | – | B− | B | 23 min | $85,872 |
| St. James | 2% | B | B+ | 50 min | $116,383 |
| Boiling Spring Lakes | 1% | C+ | C | 23 min | $62,676 |
| Caswell Beach | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Caswell Beach: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Oak Island’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 Oak Island: questions
What is the median household income in Oak Island?
$85,872 (±$7,281) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oak Island?
8.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oak Island?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oak Island work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (11%, 24 mi), Southport (5%, 9 mi), Charlotte (3%, 175 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oak Island walkable?
Oak Island is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oak Island without a car?
2% 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 Oak Island, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oak Island
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.