Mitchell House · Photo: Hennap at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Thomasville trail those of 73% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 9% of workers; North Carolina has 16%. Below the poverty line: 16.3% of residents (North Carolina 13.0%). For jobs and income Thomasville is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Thomasville, in brief
Thomasville trades workers with the towns around it
Thomasville has about as many jobs (12,305) as working residents (12,209), but they are mostly different people: 10,506 residents leave for work each day while 10,602 people come in. Only 14% of the jobs in Thomasville are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Thomasville draws workers from far and wide
The 12,305 jobs in Thomasville are filled from a wide area. Thomasville’s own residents hold 14% and the ten next-biggest home towns 26%; the other 60% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Thomasville are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical North Carolina worker. 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.
Where Thomasville’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Thomasville’s grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Thomasville could be anywhere from C to B.
Who works in Thomasville, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 10,506 residents head out to work, 1,703 work right here, and 10,602 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 (1.01 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.
18% of working residents work in High Point
Where Thomasville clocks in
11% 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.
From Thomasville, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Thomasville workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,300 commuters (the 9% 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.
What the 12,305 jobs in Thomasville are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Thomasville, 2013 → 2023: 10,670 → 12,305. 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 Thomasville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Thomasville goes to work
About 21% 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 Thomasville, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.2% of 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 12,473 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 6% 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 0.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 43% 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). 3.1% of Thomasville households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Thomasville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Thomasville places 1,142nd of 1,509 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 19,000 to 37,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Matthews NC | 32,769 | $109K | 3.7% | 2.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Harrisburg NC | 20,742 | $148K | 3.7% | 3.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 114 | Morrisville NC | 32,466 | $125K | 3.1% | 3.3% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,140 | Austintown Township OH | 35,477 | $57K | 15.7% | 4.1% | 15% | C+ |
| 1,141 | Spring Valley NY | 34,482 | $57K | 27.6% | 4.2% | 10% | C+ |
| 1,142 | Thomasville NC | 27,733 | $61K | 16.3% | 4.6% | 14% | C+ |
| 1,143 | Barberton OH | 24,748 | $52K | 15.6% | 4.2% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,144 | Pullman WA | 33,756 | $47K | 30.4% | 8.3% | 60% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,509 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Thomasville, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
The towns next door employ 18% of Thomasville
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Thomasville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomasville | – | C+ | C+ | 20 min | $60,935 |
| Trinity | under 2% | B+ | C− | 24 min | $82,664 |
| High Point | 18% | C+ | B | 21 min | $64,561 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to High Point. Darker towns draw more of Thomasville’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 Thomasville: questions
What is the median household income in Thomasville?
$60,935 (±$5,404) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Thomasville?
16.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Thomasville?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Thomasville work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are High Point (18%, 9 mi), Greensboro (11%, 21 mi), Winston-Salem (9%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Thomasville walkable?
Thomasville is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Thomasville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Thomasville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Thomasville
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.