Bethabara Historic District · Photo: Barber Photo Supply Company, Photographer · Public domainWinston-Salem has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
About half stay in Winston-Salem for work; outside it, Greensboro is the main destination (7%, 24 miles). 17.7% of residents live below the poverty line (North Carolina 13.0%). For jobs and income Winston-Salem is better than 34% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Winston-Salem
Job access by car holds Winston-Salem’s grade up (ahead of 82% 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, Winston-Salem could be anywhere from C to C+.
Who leaves Winston-Salem for work, and who comes in
On a workday 53,490 residents head out to work, 46,395 work right here, and 100,905 people come in from elsewhere.
About 305,000 people are in Winston-Salem on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where people from Winston-Salem work
Where Winston-Salem clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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 147,300 jobs in Winston-Salem are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Winston-Salem, 2014 → 2024: 134,726 → 147,300. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Winston-Salem’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 22 minutes to work from Winston-Salem
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Winston-Salem workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 98,590 commuters (the 14% 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.
Where in the region Winston-Salem works
About 23% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Winston-Salem, work means a drive
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 114,822 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 8% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 2% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 46% 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). 8.2% of Winston-Salem households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Winston-Salem’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Winston-Salem next to U.S. towns of 180,000 to 347,000: 86th of 103 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Hempstead NY | 238,982 | $158K | 4.5% | 4.1% | 20% | A |
| 2 | Oyster Bay NY | 301,115 | $160K | 3.9% | 4.6% | 19% | A |
| 3 | Frisco TX | 236,955 | $150K | 3.6% | 4.6% | 14% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Cary NC | 183,582 | $135K | 5.7% | 3.5% | 19% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Durham NC | 305,561 | $82K | 11.7% | 3.8% | 42% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Greensboro NC | 308,667 | $62K | 17.0% | 5.1% | 47% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 84 | Lubbock TX | 273,071 | $61K | 18.9% | 5.2% | 71% | C+ |
| 85 | Providence RI | 195,310 | $68K | 20.7% | 8.2% | 36% | C |
| 86 | Winston-Salem NC | 257,271 | $59K | 17.7% | 5.7% | 46% | C |
| 87 | Laredo TX | 269,515 | $64K | 20.9% | 5.4% | 75% | C |
| 88 | Paradise NV | 185,913 | $59K | 17.6% | 9.8% | 37% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Baton Rouge LA | 222,795 | $50K | 25.7% | 9.2% | 48% | C− |
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 Winston-Salem, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
How Winston-Salem compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Kernersville (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Winston-Salem workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winston-Salem | – | C | B+ | 22 min | $59,268 |
| Walkertown | under 1% | B+ | C− | 24 min | $82,615 |
| Tobaccoville | under 1% | B+ | D | 21 min | $80,263 |
| Kernersville | 3% | B | C+ | 23 min | $71,918 |
| Rural Hall | under 1% | C | D | 35 min | $51,054 |
| Clemmons | 2% | B+ | C+ | 22 min | $87,655 |
| Midway | under 1% | A− | C− | 21 min | $83,446 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Winston-Salem’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 2024, 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 Winston-Salem: questions
What is the median household income in Winston-Salem?
$59,268 (±$1,883) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Winston-Salem?
17.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Winston-Salem?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Winston-Salem work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greensboro (7%, 24 mi), Charlotte (5%, 70 mi), High Point (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Winston-Salem walkable?
Winston-Salem is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Winston-Salem without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 2% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Winston-Salem, from the people who make the trip.
More of Winston-Salem
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.