Photo: Pinetops1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Pinetops earn less than those in 73% of U.S. towns
For 3% of workers, the job is at home, against 16% across North Carolina. 13.1% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 13.0% for North Carolina as a whole. The two grades for Pinetops are C for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Pinetops in brief
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Pinetops than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Pinetops fell from 444 in 2013 to 284 in 2023, −36%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Few Pinetops workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 452 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Pinetops’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Pinetops is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Pinetops’ grade up (ahead of 47% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($60,458, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Pinetops’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, Pinetops could be anywhere from C− to B−.
How far Pinetops’ workers travel
About 33% 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 284 jobs based in Pinetops
284 jobs are based in Pinetops.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pinetops, 2013 → 2023: 444 → 284. 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 Pinetops’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Pinetops, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pinetops workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 604 commuters (the 3% 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 people are in Pinetops by day
On a workday 429 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 261 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Pinetops on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.63 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.
11% of working residents work in Tarboro
Where Pinetops clocks in
11% of workers
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.
Few in Pinetops walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pinetops is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 625 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). 8.9% of Pinetops households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pinetops’ commuters take a bus or train.
Pinetops is 2,419th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 on jobs and income
| # | 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 2,417 | Delaware Township IN | 1,548 | $75K | 10.9% | 1.8% | <1% | C |
| 2,418 | Perry Township PA | 1,331 | $70K | 9.0% | 2.7% | 6% | C |
| 2,419 | Pinetops NC | 1,198 | $60K | 13.1% | 2.7% | 5% | C |
| 2,420 | West Pelzer SC | 1,038 | $54K | 17.8% | 9.8% | 1% | C |
| 2,421 | Enfield ME | 1,444 | $63K | 6.8% | 0.0% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Pinetops, 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 Pinetops: questions
What is the median household income in Pinetops?
$60,458 (±$7,688) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pinetops?
13.1%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pinetops?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pinetops work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tarboro (11%, 9 mi), Rocky Mount (11%, 16 mi), Greenville (10%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pinetops walkable?
Pinetops is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pinetops without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pinetops, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pinetops
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.