4.2 million NC residents commute to work each week

by Rebecca Tippett, UNC Carolina Population Center, August 17, 2015.

Each week, more than 4.2 million North Carolina residents embark on a commute to work, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Most commutes are in-county commutes

In most cases, the largest commuting flow is within the county, meaning most people live and work in the same county. Within county commuting occurs among the majority of county residents in 75 of the state’s 100 counties. In two counties, Onslow and Cumberland, more than 90% of residents live and work within the same county.

Only 6 North Carolina counties have more residents working in a county other than their county of residence: Camden, Franklin, Hoke, Pender, Perquimans, and Stokes. The table below lists these counties and their largest destination county.

The impact of adjacent metropolitan areas is evident in these patterns. Each of the largest destination counties is home to a major regional city: Elizabeth City in Pasquotank, Raleigh in Wake, Fayetteville in Cumberland, Wilmington in New Hanover, and Winston-Salem in Forsyth.

Many commuters cross county lines in the state’s largest metro areas

The largest cross-county commuting flows occur within the state’s two largest metropolitan regions – the Triangle (Raleigh and Durham metro areas) and Charlotte.

Although Wake and Mecklenburg have nearly the same number of residents who work (about 461,000 in each county), Mecklenburg County is more dominant in its region than Wake is in the Triangle. Nearly 540,000 individuals work in Mecklenburg – 402,000 individuals live and work in Mecklenburg; 59,000 live in Mecklenburg but work elsewhere; and 137,000 work in Mecklenburg but live elsewhere – compared to 478,000 workers in Wake.

The differences between Wake and Mecklenburg reflect the significant impact of Research Triangle Park (located in Durham County) and the presence of UNC-Chapel Hill in Orange County and Duke in Durham on the overall commuting patterns in the Triangle region. Durham and Orange counties have the largest proportion of in-commuters: nearly 51% of workers in Durham and 49% of workers in Orange are not county residents.

http://demography.cpc.unc.edu/2015/08/17/county-to-county-commuting-nc/