Photo: Gerry Dincher · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Siler City trail those of 91% of U.S. towns
The poverty rate is 33.9%; North Carolina has 13.0%. For jobs and income Siler City is better than 13% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (A−). 4% of workers have no commute at all, where North Carolina as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Siler City, in a few figures
Few Siler City workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across North Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Siler City workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of Siler City’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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.
Income, poverty and work: Siler City’s grade explained
Unemployment holds Siler City’s grade up (4.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Siler City could be anywhere from D to C+.
A commute of about 21 minutes in Siler City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Siler City workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,364 commuters (the 4% 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.
The kinds of work in Siler City
3,608 jobs are based in Siler City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Siler City, 2013 → 2023: 3,078 → 3,608. 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 Siler City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Siler City
On a workday 2,063 residents head out to work, 429 work right here, and 3,179 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,300 people are in Siler City on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.45 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.
6% of working residents work in Raleigh
Where Siler City clocks in
6% of workers
4% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Siler City
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.
In Siler City, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,493 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). 7.1% of Siler City households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Siler City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Siler City next to U.S. towns of 5,700 to 11,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 193 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 366 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 407 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,744 | Inverness FL | 7,796 | $44K | 15.0% | 5.9% | 19% | D |
| 2,745 | North Vernon IN | 6,559 | $51K | 16.7% | 7.1% | 22% | D |
| 2,746 | Siler City NC | 8,155 | $47K | 33.9% | 4.7% | 17% | D |
| 2,747 | Pultney Township OH | 7,905 | $47K | 20.5% | 5.0% | 12% | D |
| 2,748 | Gonzales TX | 7,239 | $52K | 27.2% | 4.4% | 30% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,007 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Siler City, 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 Siler City: questions
What is the median household income in Siler City?
$46,566 (±$16,200) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Siler City?
33.9%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Siler City?
21 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Siler City work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Raleigh (6%, 47 mi), Chapel Hill (4%, 28 mi), Sanford (4%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Siler City walkable?
Siler City is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Siler City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Siler City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Siler City
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.