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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-BELMONT-NC · Belmont, NC 15,140 pop · income 68th 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 Belmont
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Belmont on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Henderson · lowest
38,780
Henderson · lowest
38,780 median HH income
25.4% of the leader · rank #1
Parkers Settl… · near
86,429
Parkers Settl… · near
86,429 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #2
Rathdrum · near
86,431
Rathdrum · near
86,431 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #3
Belmont · this city
86,442
Belmont · this city
86,442 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #4
Fredonia · near
86,442
Fredonia · near
86,442 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #5
Ravenna · near
86,458
Ravenna · near
86,458 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #6
Davidson · highest
152,969
Davidson · highest
152,969 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 Belmont 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: 15,140.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Belmont - the verdict
Nationally, Belmont sits in the 68th percentile for household income and the 13th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
68th
percentile, household income
72nd
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
13th
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: Belmont, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 15,140 residents in Belmont, a small town within North Carolina. Households in Belmont report a median income of $86,442 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.6%. Belmont's housing stock carries a median value of $349,700, and the median resident age is 37.7 years. Educational attainment runs 45.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 63.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Belmont's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3215.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, North Carolina scores 94.3 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. Workers in Belmont report an average commute of 20.3 minutes, with 70.3% driving alone and 20.4% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Belmont'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 comparison shortlist to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Belmont, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Belmont?
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.
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Laurinburg (15,079 residents, $39,258 income); Hendersonville (15,253 residents, $52,337 income); Roanoke Rapids (15,024 residents, $53,981 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Glasgow, KY (15,141 residents); Johnson City, NY (15,130 residents); Mineral Wells, TX (15,130 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,251 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.2% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. 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.
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 7 public schools within the city match. 45.7% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Belmont?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.3 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. 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.
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 Belmont?
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 home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.0×
Home value
$349,700
Household income
$86,442
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Belmont?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3215.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 41% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3215.9
Violent rate
382.8
Property rate
2833.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 3.6% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
C+
City profile score · Belmont, NC
61/100
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 A-
45.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Household income B-
$86,442
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
383 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Belmont profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.7%
Poverty rate: 74/100 (B) · 3.6%
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Household income: 66/100 (B-) · $86,442
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 383 /100k
Where Belmont sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Belmont'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 - Belmont highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Belmont, NC (this city): home $349,700, crime 3,216/100k
Glasgow, KY : home $147,700, crime 2,277/100k
Mineral Wells, TX : home $146,100, crime 3,019/100k
Front Royal, VA : home $284,900, crime 1,868/100k
Lebanon, MO : home $152,200, crime 2,473/100k
Laurinburg, NC : home $121,500, crime 6,936/100k
Hendersonville, NC : home $282,500, crime 3,322/100k
Roanoke Rapids, NC : home $129,400, crime 4,277/100k
Eden, NC : home $122,800, crime 2,946/100k
Henderson, NC : home $116,800, crime 7,593/100k
Davidson, NC : home $626,000, crime 488/100k
How does Belmont compare to other US cities?
Where Belmont sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income68% higher than other cities
Home value72% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety13% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to North Carolina alone, Belmont ranks #119 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Belmont 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 Belmont near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Belmont ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Belmont only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#120 of 700
83rd percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#119 of 708
83rd percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#559 of 746
25th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#107 of 746
86th 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
68th percentile nationally for median household income · 13th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Belmont's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Belmont'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 Belmont's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$349,70028th percentilemore affordable than 28% 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
Belmont's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,836 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,023 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.0×, Belmont sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,836 of 15,516 and #2,023 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
$86,442Belmont, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Belmont, 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 Belmont, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,140
Median Income
$86,442
Median Home Value
$349,700
Median Age
37.7
Poverty Rate
3.6%
Labor force participation
63.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3215.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
382.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2833.1
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
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Belmont's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,164 residents
2021
15,328 residents
2022
15,475 residents
2023
15,858 residents
2024
16,195 residents
2025
16,415 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.3 minutes
Drive Alone
70.3%
Carpool
5.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
20.4%
Other
0.9%
Based on 7,810 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 Belmont. 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 Belmont 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 Belmont sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Belmont 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.