County-to-County Commuting by Work County

The other week, we looked at where county residents work. Today we’re using the same 2009-2013 American Community Survey estimates to examine where county workers live.

According to the ACS, there were 4.23 million individuals working in North Carolina. The vast majority of these workers – 4.12 million or 97.4%—were also North Carolina residents. Nearly 65,000 of the state’s workers live in South Carolina (1.5% of NC workers) and 17,000 workers commute from Virginia (0.4% of NC workers).

In most counties, the majority of their workers also live in the county in which they work. Statewide, 74% of all individuals living and working in North Carolina were living and working within the same county. Only in Durham County did a majority of county workers (51%) live in another county.

Curious where workers in your county live? Explore county-to-county commuting patterns (based on county of work) in the interactive graphic below. Uncheck “Show Only Selected County” to see variation in commuting flows from outlying counties.