Work and commuting in Rocky Point
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers; North Carolina has 16%. Rocky Point grades D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Hardly any work in Rocky Point itself; outside it, Wilmington draws the most (31%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Rocky Point stands out on work
31% of Rocky Point works in Wilmington
154 working residents, 31%, have their main job in Wilmington, 16 miles away. That’s 31 times as many as work in Rocky Point itself. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% 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 ↓
Few Rocky Point workers work from home
Only 0% 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 501 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Rocky Point
On income, poverty and job access, Rocky Point is better than 13% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Rocky Point’s grade up ($69,514, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 12% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Rocky Point’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, Rocky Point could be anywhere from D− to B.
Where people from Rocky Point work
Where Rocky Point clocks in
31% 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.
How far it is to work from Rocky Point
About 32% 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.
A commute of about 28 minutes in Rocky Point
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rocky Point workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 457 commuters (the 0% 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.
Rocky Point by day and by night
On a workday 497 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 602 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Rocky Point on a workday afternoon, 10% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.21 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Jobs in Rocky Point: what the 606 are
606 jobs are based in Rocky Point.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rocky Point, 2013 → 2023: 460 → 606. 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 Rocky Point’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Rocky Point is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rocky Point is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Rocky Point near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 457 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). 12.0% of Rocky Point households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rocky Point’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Rocky Point comes 2,417th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 158 | Montreat NC | 1,024 | $116K | 0.0% | 9.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 263 | Stem NC | 1,023 | $96K | 3.0% | 1.1% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 302 | Brandywine Bay NC | 1,313 | $105K | 1.2% | 12.1% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,415 | Ceredo WV | 1,318 | $50K | 29.1% | 5.2% | 3% | D |
| 2,416 | Denver Township MI | 1,175 | $62K | 18.3% | 14.2% | 1% | D |
| 2,417 | Rocky Point NC | 1,020 | $70K | 19.8% | 0.0% | 1% | D |
| 2,418 | Tornillo TX | 1,341 | $50K | 32.2% | 6.6% | 6% | D |
| 2,419 | Oblong IL | 1,352 | $58K | 13.9% | 3.3% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Rocky Point, 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 Rocky Point: questions
What is the median household income in Rocky Point?
$69,514 (±$25,513) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rocky Point?
19.8%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rocky Point?
28 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rocky Point work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (31%, 16 mi), Burgaw (5%, 8 mi), Raleigh (4%, 105 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rocky Point walkable?
Rocky Point is more walkable than 24% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rocky Point without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rocky Point, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rocky Point
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.