Mill Farm Inn · Photo: Bigskybill · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Tryon trail those of 77% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Tryon are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Below the poverty line: 22.3% of residents (North Carolina 13.0%). About one in ten work in Tryon; the top destination outside it is Charlotte (9%, 79 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Tryon in brief
Tryon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Tryon is Charlotte, 79 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (51) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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 ↓
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 563 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Tryon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Tryon is better than 7% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Tryon’s grade.
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Tryon’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Tryon could be anywhere from D− to C.
Short hops and long hauls from Tryon
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.
Who leaves Tryon for work, and who comes in
On a workday 511 residents head out to work, 52 work right here, and 561 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 (1.09 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.
The places Tryon commutes to
Where Tryon clocks in
9% of workers
8% 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.
What the 613 jobs in Tryon are
613 jobs are based in Tryon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tryon, 2013 → 2023: 593 → 613. 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 Tryon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 22 minutes to work from Tryon
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tryon workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 681 commuters (the 16% 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 commute in Tryon is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tryon is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 810 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). 9.7% of Tryon households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tryon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Tryon is 5,398th of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 315 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,396 | Coal Run Village KY | 1,565 | $53K | 26.3% | 7.1% | 9% | D |
| 5,397 | Ramseur NC | 1,806 | $36K | 47.7% | 6.3% | 2% | D |
| 5,398 | Tryon NC | 1,634 | $58K | 22.3% | 2.5% | 9% | D |
| 5,399 | Harvey ND | 1,532 | $43K | 12.0% | 1.4% | 51% | D |
| 5,400 | Wheatland Township MI | 1,455 | $55K | 18.4% | 8.3% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Tryon, 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 Tryon: questions
What is the median household income in Tryon?
$57,721 (±$15,041) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tryon?
22.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tryon?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tryon work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charlotte (9%, 79 mi), Columbus (8%, 3 mi), Asheville (6%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Tryon walkable?
Tryon is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tryon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tryon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tryon
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.