Photo: DiscoA340 · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Wrightsville Beach earn more than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 29% of workers, against 16% across North Carolina. 4.0% of residents are in poverty, where North Carolina as a whole has 13.0%. Jobs and income earn Wrightsville Beach A+; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Wrightsville Beach and work: the main findings
Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington trade workers both ways
Wilmington is the top workplace for Wrightsville Beach residents (44%) and also where the most people who work in Wrightsville Beach come from (29% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Wrightsville Beach is where the jobs are
Wrightsville Beach has 1,938 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,500 people are in town, 45% more than the 2,400 who live here. Day and night ↓
Most Wrightsville Beach residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 867 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Wrightsville Beach: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Wrightsville Beach is better than 96% of U.S. towns. Unemployment is its strongest input (0.4%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Wrightsville Beach could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
The towns that send workers to Wrightsville Beach
Where Wrightsville Beach clocks in
44% of workers
4% of workers
3% 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 and out of Wrightsville Beach on a workday
On a workday 782 residents head out to work, 85 work right here, and 1,853 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Wrightsville Beach on a workday afternoon, 45% more than live here.
2.2 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
The commute from Wrightsville Beach, 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Wrightsville Beach
1,938 jobs are based in Wrightsville Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wrightsville Beach, 2014 → 2024: 1,661 → 1,938. 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 Wrightsville Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Wrightsville Beach, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wrightsville Beach workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 958 commuters (the 29% 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.
Driving is how Wrightsville Beach gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wrightsville Beach is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% 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 1,344 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 0.0% of Wrightsville Beach households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wrightsville Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Wrightsville Beach is 158th of 4,995 U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,200 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 108 | Avery Creek NC | 2,887 | $113K | 1.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 156 | Island Heights NJ | 1,731 | $109K | 1.5% | 2.6% | 7% | A+ |
| 157 | Buchanan NY | 2,629 | $128K | 5.7% | 1.1% | 5% | A+ |
| 158 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 10% | A+ |
| 159 | Kingston Township OH | 2,690 | $112K | 3.9% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| 160 | Piermont NY | 2,607 | $140K | 1.1% | 4.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 337 | Northlakes NC | 1,716 | $101K | 2.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,995 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 61% | 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 Wrightsville Beach, 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 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 Wrightsville Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Wrightsville Beach?
$151,563 (±$78,972) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wrightsville Beach?
4.0%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wrightsville Beach?
18 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 29% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wrightsville Beach work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wilmington (44%, 5 mi), Raleigh (4%, 122 mi), Charlotte (3%, 186 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Wrightsville Beach walkable?
Wrightsville Beach is more walkable than 43% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wrightsville Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wrightsville Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wrightsville Beach
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.