Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetNC-ASHEBORO-NC · Asheboro, NC 27,353 pop · income 17th pct · 34 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Asheboro
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Asheboro on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marion · lowest
43,349
Marion · lowest
43,349 median HH income
31.2% of the leader · rank #1
Fort Payne · near
48,623
Fort Payne · near
48,623 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #2
Pawhuska · near
48,625
Pawhuska · near
48,625 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #3
Asheboro · this city
48,628
Asheboro · this city
48,628 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #4
Casey · near
48,631
Casey · near
48,631 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #5
Cottonwood Fa… · near
48,631
Cottonwood Fa… · near
48,631 median HH income
35.0% of the leader · rank #6
Deer Park · highest
138,950
Deer Park · highest
138,950 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Asheboro on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 27,353.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Asheboro lands in the 17th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
17th
percentile, household income
31st
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Asheboro, NC
27,353 people live in Asheboro, North Carolina - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $48,628 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.6%. Asheboro's housing stock carries a median value of $162,800, and the median resident age is 36.1 years. About 20.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 84 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 62% from five years earlier. NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 59.0°F with 46.6 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: the state registers 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,161 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts North Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $215 (state average). Commute times here average 21.0 minutes, with 82.9% driving alone and 4.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 66.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Asheboro's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to within-city variation to schools and households to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Asheboro, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Asheboro growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +739 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 84 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Which cities make useful reference points for Asheboro?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Kernersville (27,439 residents, $69,923 income); Thomasville (27,261 residents, $58,246 income); Mint Hill (26,954 residents, $99,272 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Deer Park, NY (27,334 residents); Green, OH (27,381 residents); Marion, IN (27,384 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
What does the journey to work look like in Asheboro?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.0 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
PlainCities matches 34 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Asheboro?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.3×
Home value
$162,800
Household income
$48,628
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 16 public schools within the city match. 20.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
15.6%
Bachelor's degree+
20.1%
Matched public schools
16
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 59.0°F, with 46.6 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for North Carolina is 66.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
66.7
Annual precipitation
46.6 in
Mean temperature
59.0°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Asheboro, NC
34/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B-
94.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,628
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Asheboro profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.1%
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.6%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,628
How does Asheboro compare to other US cities?
Asheboro measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value31% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Asheboro against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Asheboro near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Asheboro ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Asheboro only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#485 of 700
31st percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#446 of 708
37th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#223 of 746
70th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#413 of 746
45th percentile in North Carolina
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within North Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
17th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Asheboro's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$162,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Asheboro's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,326 of 15,516
More affordable than 46% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,336 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Asheboro sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,326 of 15,516 and #1,336 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$48,628Asheboro, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Asheboro, NC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Asheboro, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
27,353
Median Income
$48,628
Median Home Value
$162,800
Median Age
36.1
Poverty Rate
15.6%
Labor force participation
56.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.1%
Climate
Avg Temperature
59.0°F
Annual Precipitation
46.6"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
16
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Asheboro's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
27,251 residents
2021
27,408 residents
2022
27,571 residents
2023
27,815 residents
2024
28,038 residents
2025
27,990 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
84
housing units authorized
Single-Family
46
detached homes
Multifamily
38
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
52
44
8
$4.6M
2020
85
85
0
$10.2M
2021
89
87
2
$9.0M
2022
74
70
4
$8.6M
2023
119
103
16
$11.3M
2024
84
46
38
$11.5M
Permit volume increased 62% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.0 minutes
Drive Alone
82.9%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
1.9%
Based on 11,605 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Carolina at $215 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are North Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Asheboro. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Asheboro is $1,161/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Asheboro sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Asheboro compares to similar-size North Carolina cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.