Photo: Dincher · CC BY-SA 3.0Vass has 1.8 jobs for every working resident: 599 people commute in to work
Jobs and income earn Vass B−; getting around on foot earns it D. Vass has 605 jobs; 344 of its residents have a job. Only 2% work in Vass; the top destination outside it is Southern Pines (17%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Vass apart
Why Vass gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Vass is better than 48% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Vass’ grade up (6.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Vass’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, Vass could be anywhere from C− to A−.
A workday in Vass: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 338 residents head out to work and 6 work right here.
About 1,300 people are in Vass on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where the people who work in Vass live
Where Vass clocks in
17% of workers
13% of workers
6% 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 Vass’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vass, 2013 → 2023: 509 → 605. 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 Vass’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Vass
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vass workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 718 commuters (the 13% 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 from Vass, by distance
About 29% 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.
Driving is how Vass gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vass is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 828 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). 6.4% of Vass households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Vass’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Vass comes 1,075th 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− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,073 | Wautoma WI | 1,298 | $81K | 7.4% | 1.8% | 5% | B− |
| 1,074 | Felton DE | 1,386 | $60K | 7.0% | 2.7% | 2% | B− |
| 1,075 | Vass NC | 1,062 | $74K | 6.7% | 3.9% | 2% | B− |
| 1,076 | Hiram OH | 1,000 | $75K | 14.8% | 5.5% | 3% | B− |
| 1,077 | Bessemer PA | 1,038 | $66K | 10.8% | 5.2% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Vass, 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 Vass: questions
What is the median household income in Vass?
$73,581 (±$22,314) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vass?
6.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vass?
26 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Vass work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Southern Pines (17%, 8 mi), Pinehurst (13%, 11 mi), Raleigh (6%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Vass walkable?
Vass is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vass without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vass, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vass
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.