Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Few U.S. towns have household incomes as low as Charlotte’s
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. 36.4% of residents live below the poverty line (Texas 13.8%). Charlotte grades D− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Charlotte
Charlotte’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Charlotte is San Antonio, 43 miles away as the crow flies. 24% of working residents (129) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Jobs in Charlotte have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Charlotte went from 382 in 2013 to 901 in 2023, +136%. The jobs ↓
Charlotte is where the jobs are
Charlotte has 901 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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 546 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Charlotte earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Charlotte is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Charlotte’s grade.
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Charlotte’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Charlotte could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many miles Charlotte commutes
About 43% 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.
Making and building: 58% of jobs based in Charlotte
901 jobs are based in Charlotte.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Charlotte, 2013 → 2023: 382 → 901. 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 Charlotte’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Charlotte
On a workday 500 residents head out to work, 46 work right here, and 855 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Charlotte on a workday afternoon, 21% more than live here.
1.7 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 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Charlotte: where workers come from
Where Charlotte clocks in
24% of workers
9% 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.
About 24 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Charlotte workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 501 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% 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.
Most trips from Charlotte start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Charlotte is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Charlotte near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 501 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). 11.5% of Charlotte households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Charlotte’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200, and where Charlotte sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 26 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,287 | Lovelock NV | 1,771 | $42K | 25.6% | 9.2% | 20% | D− |
| 5,288 | Jellico TN | 2,126 | $41K | 27.7% | 13.1% | 14% | D− |
| 5,289 | Charlotte TX | 1,653 | $29K | 36.4% | 5.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,290 | Spencer WV | 1,895 | $38K | 33.5% | 16.5% | 24% | D− |
| 5,291 | Machias ME | 2,078 | $34K | 25.6% | 17.4% | 37% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Charlotte, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
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 Charlotte: questions
What is the median household income in Charlotte?
$28,955 (±$14,295) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Charlotte?
36.4%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Charlotte?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Charlotte work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Antonio (24%, 43 mi), Jourdanton (9%, 10 mi), Pleasanton (5%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Charlotte walkable?
Charlotte is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Charlotte without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Charlotte, from the people who make the trip.
More of Charlotte
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.