Rock House · Photo: MarmadukePercy · CC BY-SA 3.0Pilot Mountain draws 1,269 commuters a day, with 2.3 jobs for every working resident
For jobs and income Pilot Mountain is better than 27% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (B+). There are 1,319 jobs in Pilot Mountain; 581 of its residents have a job. Household incomes here are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Pilot Mountain: the figures worth knowing
Pilot Mountain is where the jobs are
Pilot Mountain has 1,319 jobs, 2.3 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,200 people are in town, 51% more than the 1,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Pilot Mountain’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Pilot Mountain is Winston-Salem, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 26% of working residents (152) 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; with 581 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Pilot Mountain’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Pilot Mountain’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($49,200, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.5%) is left out: Pilot Mountain’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pilot Mountain could be anywhere from D to B.
Who works in Pilot Mountain, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 531 residents head out to work and 50 work right here.
About 2,200 people are in Pilot Mountain on a workday afternoon, 51% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
How far it is to work from Pilot Mountain
About 20% 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.
Where the people who work in Pilot Mountain live
Where Pilot Mountain clocks in
10% 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.
What Pilot Mountain’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pilot Mountain, 2013 → 2023: 1,137 → 1,319. 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 Pilot Mountain’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Pilot Mountain takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pilot Mountain workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 724 commuters (the 8% 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.
Driving is how Pilot Mountain gets around
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.4% 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 786 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). 3.4% of Pilot Mountain households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pilot Mountain’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Pilot Mountain is 3,529th among 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 267 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,527 | Conyngham Township PA | 1,336 | $60K | 12.6% | 3.0% | <1% | C |
| 3,528 | Oakland SC | 1,060 | $69K | 22.8% | 6.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,529 | Pilot Mountain NC | 1,437 | $49K | 12.4% | 3.5% | 9% | C |
| 3,530 | Cavalier ND | 1,218 | $60K | 6.2% | 8.7% | 34% | C |
| 3,531 | Ashley OH | 1,343 | $57K | 20.1% | 4.8% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Pilot Mountain, 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 Pilot Mountain: questions
What is the median household income in Pilot Mountain?
$49,200 (±$16,366) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pilot Mountain?
12.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pilot Mountain?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pilot Mountain work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Winston-Salem (26%, 23 mi), Mount Airy (10%, 12 mi), Dobson (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pilot Mountain walkable?
Pilot Mountain is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pilot Mountain without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pilot Mountain, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pilot Mountain
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.