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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-MOORESVILLE-NC · Mooresville, NC 51,447 pop · income 70th pct · 46 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 Mooresville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mooresville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Wilson · lowest
47,294
Wilson · lowest
47,294 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #1
Mooresville · this city
88,592
Mooresville · this city
88,592 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #2
Ballou · near
88,594
Ballou · near
88,594 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #3
New Cambria · near
88,601
New Cambria · near
88,601 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #4
Brookdale · near
88,603
Brookdale · near
88,603 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #5
West Valley C… · near
88,604
West Valley C… · near
88,604 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #6
Levittown · highest
139,696
Levittown · highest
139,696 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 Mooresville 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: 51,447.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mooresville - the verdict
Nationally, Mooresville sits in the 70th percentile for household income and the 25th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
70th
percentile, household income
72nd
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
25th
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: Mooresville, NC
51,447 people live in Mooresville, North Carolina - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Mooresville households earn a median of $88,592 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.8%. Typical homes in Mooresville are valued around $348,500, and the median resident age is 36.6 years. 45.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Mooresville (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2369.4 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. The average commute for Mooresville workers runs 19.5 minutes, with 71.7% driving alone and 18.2% working from home. 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 Mooresville'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 reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mooresville, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mooresville?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2369.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 4% 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.
What can 46 Census tracts reveal inside Mooresville?
PlainCities matches 46 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.
What does the education layer cover for Mooresville?
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 18 public schools within the city match. 45.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Mooresville?
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 Wake Forest (51,199 residents, $120,777 income); Rocky Mount (54,175 residents, $52,927 income); Wilson (47,740 residents, $47,294 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Little Elm, TX (51,426 residents); Harrisonburg, VA (51,492 residents); Glendora, CA (51,350 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.
Population change
Is Mooresville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5,287 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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.
2020 estimate
50,555
2025 estimate
55,842
Period change
+10.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Mooresville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.5 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.
Drive alone
71.7%
Work from home
18.2%
Public transit
0.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 26,631 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Mooresville?
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 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.9×
Home value
$348,500
Household income
$88,592
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 6.8% (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 · Mooresville, NC
62/100
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-
45.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$88,592
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Poverty rate C-
6.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
217 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Mooresville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.3%
Household income: 68/100 (B-) · $88,592
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Poverty rate: 54/100 (C-) · 6.8%
Violent crime: 45/100 (D) · 217 /100k
Where Mooresville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mooresville'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 - Mooresville highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Mooresville, NC (this city): home $348,500, crime 2,369/100k
Little Elm, TX : home $390,300, crime 557/100k
Harrisonburg, VA : home $278,200, crime 1,960/100k
Glendora, CA : home $820,800, crime 2,168/100k
Palm Desert, CA : home $491,600, crime 3,151/100k
Dunwoody, GA : home $579,400, crime 3,497/100k
Wake Forest, NC : home $435,000, crime 1,452/100k
Rocky Mount, NC : home $148,300, crime 4,745/100k
Wilson, NC : home $192,000, crime 2,982/100k
Kannapolis, NC : home $245,500, crime 1,953/100k
Burlington, NC : home $188,700, crime 4,037/100k
Hickory, NC : home $248,300, crime 3,232/100k
How does Mooresville compare to other US cities?
Mooresville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income70% higher than other cities
Home value72% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety25% 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, Mooresville ranks #93 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 Mooresville 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 Mooresville near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mooresville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mooresville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#104 of 700
85th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#122 of 708
83rd percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#446 of 746
40th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#109 of 746
85th 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
70th percentile nationally for median household income · 25th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mooresville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mooresville'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 Mooresville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$348,50028th 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
Mooresville's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,497 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#296 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.9×, Mooresville sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,497 of 15,516 and #296 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$88,592Mooresville, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mooresville, 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 Mooresville, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
51,447
Median Income
$88,592
Median Home Value
$348,500
Median Age
36.6
Poverty Rate
6.8%
Labor force participation
67.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2369.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
217.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2152.4
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
18
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mooresville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
50,555 residents
2021
51,742 residents
2022
52,756 residents
2023
53,840 residents
2024
55,500 residents
2025
55,842 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.5 minutes
Drive Alone
71.7%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
18.2%
Other
1.5%
Based on 26,631 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 Mooresville. 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 Mooresville 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 Mooresville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mooresville 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.