Photo: Abhiram Juvvadi · CC BY-SA 4.0Raleigh has higher household incomes than 63% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 8.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 4.0 in Cary. Poverty touches 11.9% of residents, against 13.0% across North Carolina. For jobs and income Raleigh is better than 64% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Raleigh at work: what stands out
Raleigh is where the jobs are
Raleigh has 366,134 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Raleigh works from home
26% of Raleigh workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. 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.
Inside Raleigh’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Raleigh’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Raleigh could be anywhere from B to B+.
A workday in Raleigh: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 121,742 residents head out to work, 93,825 work right here, and 272,309 people come in from elsewhere.
About 657,000 people are in Raleigh on a workday afternoon, 30% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
About 23 minutes to work from Raleigh
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Raleigh workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 195,663 commuters (the 26% 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.
Commuting in to Raleigh: where workers come from
Where Raleigh clocks in
10% of workers
8% of workers
4% 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.
66% of the jobs in Raleigh pay over $3,333 a month
366,134 jobs are based in Raleigh.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Raleigh, 2013 → 2023: 310,137 → 366,134. 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 Raleigh’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Raleigh’s workers travel
About 16% 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.
Raleigh is easy on foot, hard by bus
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above 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 263,822 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 58% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 26% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 8.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 91% 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). 6.0% of Raleigh households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Raleigh’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Raleigh next to U.S. towns of 354,000 to 684,000: 4th of 32 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brookhaven NY | 496,410 | $120K | 7.0% | 5.2% | 32% | A− |
| 2 | Virginia Beach VA | 453,737 | $93K | 8.6% | 4.0% | 47% | A− |
| 3 | Mesa AZ | 513,656 | $83K | 10.3% | 4.2% | 24% | B+ |
| 4 | Raleigh NC | 506,306 | $85K | 11.9% | 4.4% | 44% | B |
| 5 | Oakland CA | 440,838 | $102K | 13.4% | 6.4% | 26% | B |
| 6 | Aurora CO | 410,053 | $88K | 11.9% | 5.9% | 23% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Detroit MI | 649,095 | $40K | 32.7% | 14.0% | 31% | C− |
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 Raleigh, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Next door is work for 21% of Raleigh
The biggest share goes to Durham (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Raleigh workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raleigh | – | B | A | 23 min | $85,395 |
| Cary | 8% | A | B+ | 23 min | $134,905 |
| Garner | 2% | B | B | 26 min | $78,756 |
| Wake Forest | 1% | A | B | 31 min | $123,802 |
| Durham | 10% | B+ | A | 22 min | $81,619 |
| Knightdale | under 2% | A | B+ | 24 min | $103,220 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Raleigh’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 Raleigh: questions
What is the median household income in Raleigh?
$85,395 (±$2,159) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Raleigh?
11.9%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Raleigh?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 26% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Raleigh work?
44% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Durham (10%, 18 mi), Cary (8%, 11 mi), Charlotte (4%, 130 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Raleigh walkable?
Raleigh is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Raleigh without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 26% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Raleigh, from the people who make the trip.
More of Raleigh
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.