Photo: Morgan Riley · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Wanchese (1.9%) is lower than in 86% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Wanchese itself; outside it, Nags Head draws the most (16%, 7 miles). Wanchese grades B for jobs and income and C− for walkability. For 3% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Wanchese
Wanchese makes and builds things
67% of the jobs based in Wanchese are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Wanchese residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 20%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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 ↓
Commutes from Wanchese are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 54 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; with 617 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Wanchese
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wanchese is better than 63% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Wanchese’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wanchese could be anywhere from C to A−.
Goods jobs make up 67% of work in Wanchese
600 jobs are based in Wanchese.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wanchese, 2013 → 2023: 478 → 600. 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 Wanchese’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Wanchese goes to work
About 30% 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.
From Wanchese, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wanchese workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,053 commuters (the 3% 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.
How a workday changes Wanchese
On a workday 482 residents head out to work, 135 work right here, and 465 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 (0.97 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.
Where the trip to work from Wanchese ends
Where Wanchese clocks in
16% of workers
13% 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.
In Wanchese, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wanchese is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,088 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). 9.0% of Wanchese households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wanchese’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wanchese next to U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600: 1,456th of 5,234 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,454 | Leicester NY | 2,064 | $80K | 2.8% | 4.0% | 3% | B |
| 1,455 | Leona Valley CA | 1,465 | $132K | 7.2% | 1.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,456 | Wanchese NC | 1,956 | $89K | 6.3% | 1.9% | 22% | B |
| 1,457 | Big Lake WA | 2,326 | $109K | 5.1% | 0.0% | 1% | B |
| 1,458 | Sleepy Hollow WY | 1,632 | $121K | 10.4% | 1.9% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Wanchese, 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 Wanchese: questions
What is the median household income in Wanchese?
$88,750 (±$22,450) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wanchese?
6.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wanchese?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wanchese work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Nags Head (16%, 7 mi), Manteo (13%, 4 mi), Kitty Hawk (4%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wanchese walkable?
Wanchese is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wanchese without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wanchese, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wanchese
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.