Photo: Brian Stansberry (photographer) · CC BY 4.0Patterson Springs has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Hardly any stay in Patterson Springs for work; outside it, Shelby is the main destination (19%, 4 miles). Employers in Patterson Springs report 106 jobs; 275 of its residents have a job. The average commute takes 24 minutes each way; North Carolina averages 25, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Patterson Springs: the figures worth knowing
Where people from Patterson Springs work
Where Patterson Springs clocks in
7% 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.
Patterson Springs by day and by night
On a workday 275 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 106 people come in from elsewhere.
About 420 people are in Patterson Springs on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Patterson Springs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Patterson Springs, 2014 → 2024: 94 → 106. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Patterson Springs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Patterson Springs: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Patterson Springs workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 333 commuters (the 13% 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.
Miles to work from Patterson Springs
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Patterson Springs: questions
What is the median household income in Patterson Springs?
$58,250 (±$31,110) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Patterson Springs?
23.2%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Patterson Springs?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Patterson Springs work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shelby (19%, 4 mi), Kings Mountain (9%, 9 mi), Charlotte (7%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around Patterson Springs 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 Patterson Springs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Patterson Springs
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.