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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-BEAUFORT-NC · Beaufort, NC 4,613 pop · income 17th pct
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 Beaufort
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Beaufort on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lindale · lowest
40,283
Lindale · lowest
40,283 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #1
Webb · near
48,102
Webb · near
48,102 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #2
Berea · near
48,104
Berea · near
48,104 median HH income
45.6% of the leader · rank #3
Trenton · near
48,109
Trenton · near
48,109 median HH income
45.6% of the leader · rank #4
Beaufort · this city
48,111
Beaufort · this city
48,111 median HH income
45.6% of the leader · rank #5
Arnold · near
48,119
Arnold · near
48,119 median HH income
45.6% of the leader · rank #6
Kalaheo · highest
105,605
Kalaheo · highest
105,605 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Beaufort on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 4,613.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Beaufort - the verdict
Nationally, Beaufort sits in the 17th percentile for household income and the 31st percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
68th
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
31st
percentile, safety
📝 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: Beaufort, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,613 residents in Beaufort, a small town within North Carolina. Median household income here is $48,111 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.3%. Home values in Beaufort run a median of $319,700, and the median resident age is 50.5 years. 36.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 68 residential building permits were authorized in Beaufort (Stable), down 1% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2032.5 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,161 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in North Carolina run around $215, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Beaufort'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Beaufort, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Beaufort?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Beaufort?
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Randleman (4,611 residents, $51,852 income); Erwin (4,617 residents, $50,077 income); Weaverville (4,618 residents, $90,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are La Joya, TX (4,613 residents); Kalaheo, HI (4,612 residents); Lake Montezuma, AZ (4,615 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.
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
How far does income reach against housing in Beaufort?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 36.0% 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.
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Beaufort?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2032.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 11% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1727.6
Violent rate
304.9
Total reported rate
2032.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Beaufort growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +437 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 68 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+9.8%
2025 estimate
4,912
2020 estimate
4,475
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Beaufort, NC
39/100
5 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.
Bachelor's+ share B-
36.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Violent crime F
305 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
14.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,111
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Beaufort profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 68/100 (B-) · 36.0%
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Violent crime: 32/100 (F) · 305 /100k
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.3%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,111
Where Beaufort sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Beaufort's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Beaufort highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Beaufort, NC (this city): home $319,700, crime 2,033/100k
La Joya, TX : home $109,600, crime 1,242/100k
Centralia, MO : home $165,600, crime 1,087/100k
Erwin, NC : home $150,400, crime 2,785/100k
Weaverville, NC : home $452,700, crime 3,191/100k
Pittsboro, NC : home $342,800, crime 3,162/100k
Ranlo, NC : home $184,500, crime 1,082/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Beaufort compare to other US cities?
Beaufort 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 value68% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety31% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at North Carolina, Beaufort ranks #75 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Beaufort 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 Beaufort near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Beaufort ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Beaufort only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#495 of 700
29th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#146 of 708
79th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#257 of 746
65th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#182 of 746
75th 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 · 31st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Beaufort's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Beaufort's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Beaufort's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$319,70032nd percentilemore affordable than 32% 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
Beaufort's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,503 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,702 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.6×, Beaufort sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,503 of 15,516 and #10,702 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$48,111Beaufort, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Beaufort, 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 Beaufort, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)36.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,613
Median Income
$48,111
Median Home Value
$319,700
Median Age
50.5
Poverty Rate
14.3%
Labor force participation
53.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
36.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2032.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
304.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1727.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Beaufort's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,475 residents
2021
4,592 residents
2022
4,693 residents
2023
4,819 residents
2024
4,900 residents
2025
4,912 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
68
housing units authorized
Single-Family
68
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
14.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
69
69
0
$17.2M
2020
77
77
0
$20.5M
2021
94
94
0
$25.0M
2022
116
116
0
$28.7M
2023
73
73
0
$23.9M
2024
68
68
0
$25.6M
Permit volume decreased 1% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.9%
Carpool
2.5%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
17.8%
Other
2.4%
Based on 2,081 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 Beaufort. 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Beaufort 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, FBI UCR, 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.