Poplar Grove · Photo: BSLRed · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Porters Neck (12.5%) than in 98% of U.S. towns
For 34% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole. Porters Neck grades B for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Household incomes here are higher than in 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Porters Neck stands out on work
Porters Neck trades workers with the towns around it
Porters Neck has about as many jobs (2,875) as working residents (2,743), but they are mostly different people: 2,577 residents leave for work each day while 2,709 people come in. Only 6% of the jobs in Porters Neck are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Porters Neck works from home
34% of Porters Neck workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Time on the road ↓
Porters Neck has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Porters Neck went from 1,725 in 2014 to 2,875 in 2024, +67%. The jobs ↓
39% of Porters Neck works in Wilmington
1,067 working residents, 39%, have their main job in Wilmington, 8.8 miles away. That’s 7 times as many as work in Porters Neck itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Porters Neck
64% of Porters Neck residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 41% of the jobs based in Porters Neck pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 94% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, 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.
Porters Neck’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Porters Neck is better than 61% of U.S. towns, #102 of 290 in North Carolina. The poverty rate holds Porters Neck’s grade up; unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Porters Neck could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Who leaves Porters Neck for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,577 residents head out to work, 166 work right here, and 2,709 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.05 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
About 24 minutes each way, about the NC average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Porters Neck workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,898 commuters (the 34% 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.
Jobs in Porters Neck: what the 2,875 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Porters Neck, 2014 → 2024: 1,725 → 2,875. 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 Porters Neck’s own residents hold wherever they work.
39% of working residents work in Wilmington
Where Porters Neck clocks in
39% of workers
4% 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.
Where in the region Porters Neck works
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Porters Neck: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Porters Neck is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns, #250 of 290 in North Carolina. 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 2,893 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). 4.1% of Porters Neck households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Porters Neck’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Porters Neck is 1,422nd of 3,018 U.S. towns of 5,400 to 10,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 358 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 400 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,420 | Wilson NY | 5,727 | $89K | 8.7% | 3.3% | 10% | B |
| 1,421 | St. Augustine Shores FL | 9,462 | $74K | 5.0% | 3.6% | 4% | B |
| 1,422 | Porters Neck NC | 7,654 | $120K | 3.8% | 12.5% | 6% | B |
| 1,423 | Mammoth Lakes CA | 6,867 | $98K | 6.1% | 3.3% | 54% | B |
| 1,424 | Lopatcong Township NJ | 9,537 | $91K | 10.0% | 5.0% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,018 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Porters Neck, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Next door to Porters Neck
The biggest share goes to Bayshore (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Porters Neck workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porters Neck | – | B | C− | 24 min | $119,979 |
| Bayshore | 1% | A | C | 20 min | $94,632 |
| Ogden | under 2% | A | C− | 28 min | $121,338 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Porters Neck’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 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 Porters Neck: questions
What is the median household income in Porters Neck?
$119,979 (±$25,761) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Porters Neck?
3.8%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Porters Neck?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 34% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Porters Neck work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (39%, 9 mi), Raleigh (4%, 117 mi), Murraysville (3%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Porters Neck walkable?
Porters Neck is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Porters Neck without a car?
0% 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 Porters Neck, from the people who make the trip.
More of Porters Neck
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. 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.