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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-HAMLET-NC · Hamlet, NC 6,000 pop · income 7th 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 Hamlet
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hamlet on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sunol · lowest
38,490
Sunol · lowest
38,490 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #1
Hamlet · this city
38,500
Hamlet · this city
38,500 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #2
Greenway · near
38,500
Greenway · near
38,500 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #3
Canon · near
38,500
Canon · near
38,500 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #4
Golden City · near
38,500
Golden City · near
38,500 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #5
Bridgewater · near
38,500
Bridgewater · near
38,500 median HH income
21.5% of the leader · rank #6
West Concord · highest
178,979
West Concord · highest
178,979 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 Hamlet 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: 6,000.
Nationally, Hamlet sits in the 7th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
7th
percentile, household income
11th
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: Hamlet, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 6,000 residents in Hamlet, a small town within North Carolina. Median household income here is $38,500 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 23.3%. Typical homes in Hamlet are valued around $103,800, and the median resident age is 41.5 years. About 9.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 45.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 62.9°F with 49.5 inches of precipitation per year and 0.5 inches of snowfall.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,161 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $215 across North Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Hamlet'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 housing and income to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist 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 Hamlet, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Hamlet?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 23.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Hamlet?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -153 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.5% 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hamlet?
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 Mocksville (6,001 residents, $55,544 income); Dallas (6,012 residents, $57,755 income); Swannanoa (6,043 residents, $72,978 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Greenwood, MO (6,000 residents); Port Clinton, OH (5,999 residents); Gilbertsville, PA (5,999 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Hamlet?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 9.8% 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
23.3%
Bachelor's degree+
9.8%
Matched public schools
5
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 62.9°F, with 49.5 inches of precipitation and 0.5 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
66.7
Annual precipitation
49.5 in
Mean temperature
62.9°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 23.3% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Hamlet, NC
21/100
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.
Poverty rate F
23.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
9.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$38,500
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).
Hamlet profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Poverty rate: 8/100 (F) · 23.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 6/100 (F) · 9.8%
Household income: 5/100 (F) · $38,500
How does Hamlet compare to other US cities?
Where Hamlet sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income7% higher than other cities
Home value11% 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 Hamlet 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 Hamlet near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hamlet ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hamlet only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#604 of 700
14th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#621 of 708
12th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#118 of 746
84th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#644 of 746
14th 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
7th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Hamlet's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$103,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 89% 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
Hamlet's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,013 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,399 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Hamlet sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,013 of 15,516 and #4,399 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$38,500Hamlet, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hamlet, 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 Hamlet, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)9.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)23.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,000
Median Income
$38,500
Median Home Value
$103,800
Median Age
41.5
Poverty Rate
23.3%
Labor force participation
45.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
9.8%
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.9°F
Annual Precipitation
49.5"
Annual Snowfall
0.5"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hamlet's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,023 residents
2021
5,996 residents
2022
5,973 residents
2023
5,931 residents
2024
5,891 residents
2025
5,870 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.4%
Carpool
9.0%
Public Transit
1.7%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
5.5%
Based on 2,241 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 Hamlet. 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 Hamlet 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 Hamlet sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hamlet 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.