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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-CHARLOTTE-NC · Charlotte, NC 886,283 pop · income 60th pct · 305 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 Charlotte
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Charlotte on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Fayetteville · lowest
56,395
Fayetteville · lowest
56,395 median HH income
39.9% of the leader · rank #1
Charlotte · this city
78,438
Charlotte · this city
78,438 median HH income
55.5% of the leader · rank #2
Gastonville · near
78,438
Gastonville · near
78,438 median HH income
55.5% of the leader · rank #3
Tabor · near
78,438
Tabor · near
78,438 median HH income
55.5% of the leader · rank #4
Hawley · near
78,438
Hawley · near
78,438 median HH income
55.5% of the leader · rank #5
Centerville b… · near
78,446
Centerville b… · near
78,446 median HH income
55.5% of the leader · rank #6
San Francisco · highest
141,446
San Francisco · highest
141,446 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 Charlotte 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: 886,283.
Nationally, Charlotte sits in the 60th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
60th
percentile, household income
72nd
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: Charlotte, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 886,283 residents in Charlotte, a mid-sized U.S. city within North Carolina. Charlotte households earn a median of $78,438 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.4%. Typical homes in Charlotte are valued around $351,500, and the median resident age is 34.4 years. About 47.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 69.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Charlotte's yearly average temperature at 61.4°F with 43.6 inches of precipitation per year and 3.5 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in North Carolina run around $215, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 18.6 minutes, with 61.0% driving alone and 25.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 66.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Charlotte'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 schools and households to housing and income to population change to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Charlotte, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Charlotte?
The NCES join finds 175 public schools within the city match. 47.4% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Charlotte?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.4%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Charlotte?
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Raleigh (470,763 residents, $82,424 income); Greensboro (298,564 residents, $58,884 income); Durham (288,465 residents, $79,234 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Indianapolis, IN (882,043 residents); Columbus, OH (906,480 residents); San Francisco, CA (836,321 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.
What can 305 Census tracts reveal inside Charlotte?
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.
PlainCities matches 305 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Population change
Is Charlotte 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 +89,877 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.3% 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.
Period change
+10.3%
2025 estimate
964,784
2020 estimate
874,907
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.4°F, with 43.6 inches of precipitation and 3.5 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
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.
Mean temperature
61.4°F
Annual precipitation
43.6 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
66.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Charlotte?
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 61.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.6 minutes.
Public transit
2.2%
Work from home
25.5%
Drive alone
61.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 476,735 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 8.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
C+
City profile score · Charlotte, NC
62/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
47.4%
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.
Household income C
$78,438
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Charlotte profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 82/100 (A-) · 47.4%
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Household income: 58/100 (C) · $78,438
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.4%
How does Charlotte compare to other US cities?
Charlotte measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income60% higher than other cities
Home value72% 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 Charlotte 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 Charlotte near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Charlotte ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Charlotte only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#169 of 700
76th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#115 of 708
84th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#395 of 746
47th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#98 of 746
87th 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
60th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Charlotte's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$351,50028th 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
Charlotte's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,931 of 15,516
More affordable than 23% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#55 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 4.5×, Charlotte sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,931 of 15,516 and #55 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$78,438Charlotte, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Charlotte, 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 Charlotte, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)47.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
886,283
Median Income
$78,438
Median Home Value
$351,500
Median Age
34.4
Poverty Rate
8.4%
Labor force participation
69.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
47.4%
Climate
Avg Temperature
61.4°F
Annual Precipitation
43.6"
Annual Snowfall
3.5"
Schools
Total Schools
175
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Charlotte's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
874,907 residents
2021
882,504 residents
2022
898,017 residents
2023
918,270 residents
2024
944,053 residents
2025
964,784 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.6 minutes
Drive Alone
61.0%
Carpool
8.1%
Public Transit
2.2%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
25.5%
Other
1.5%
Based on 476,735 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 Charlotte. 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 Charlotte 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 Charlotte sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Charlotte 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.