Catawba Rosenwald School · Photo: Charlesbackroads · CC BY-SA 3.0Catawba has lower household incomes than 75% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 11.5% of residents (South Carolina 14.1%). Jobs and income earn Catawba B−; getting around on foot earns it D−. Only 2% stay in Catawba for work; outside it, Rock Hill is the main destination (29%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Catawba apart
Catawba makes and builds things
94% of the jobs based in Catawba are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Catawba residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 20%. The jobs ↓
Catawba and Rock Hill trade workers both ways
Rock Hill is the top workplace for Catawba residents (29%) and also where the most people who work in Catawba come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
The jobs in Catawba pay better than its residents’ jobs
88% of the jobs based in Catawba pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 61% of the jobs Catawba residents hold. 98% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Catawba. The jobs ↓
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 575 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Catawba’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Catawba is better than 47% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Catawba’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($59,632, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (13.8%) is left out: Catawba’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, Catawba could be anywhere from C− to A.
Making and building: 94% of jobs based in Catawba
511 jobs are based in Catawba.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Catawba, 2013 → 2023: 929 → 511. 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 Catawba’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The places Catawba commutes to
Where Catawba clocks in
29% of workers
19% 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.
Catawba on a workday afternoon
On a workday 565 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 501 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 (0.89 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.
Time on the road from Catawba: about 32 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Catawba workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 385 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across South Carolina: 86% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Catawba
About 17% 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.
Most of Catawba commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 418 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 Catawba households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Catawba’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Catawba is 1,139th among 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 872 | Edisto Beach SC | 1,071 | $86K | 2.5% | 5.8% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 920 | Murphys Estates SC | 1,064 | $90K | 14.6% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 927 | Warrenville SC | 1,042 | $53K | 6.0% | 4.1% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,137 | Comfort Township MN | 1,264 | $91K | 7.2% | 3.5% | 1% | B− |
| 1,138 | Skagway AK | 1,174 | $89K | 6.2% | 9.3% | — | B− |
| 1,139 | Catawba SC | 1,071 | $60K | 11.5% | 13.8% | 2% | B− |
| 1,140 | Jordan NY | 1,194 | $77K | 13.8% | 2.8% | 2% | B− |
| 1,141 | Americus Township KS | 1,368 | $86K | 7.7% | 3.8% | 4% | 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 Catawba, the top three, the last and three more from South 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 Catawba: questions
What is the median household income in Catawba?
$59,632 (±$24,692) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Catawba?
11.5%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Catawba?
32 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Catawba work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rock Hill (29%, 10 mi), Charlotte (19%, 26 mi), Columbia (3%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Catawba walkable?
Catawba is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Catawba 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 Catawba, from the people who make the trip.
More of Catawba
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.