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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-MURPHY-NC · Murphy, NC 1,356 pop · income 6th pct · 12 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 Murphy
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Murphy on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chadbourn · lowest
19,853
Chadbourn · lowest
19,853 median HH income
14.0% of the leader · rank #1
Ravenna · near
36,979
Ravenna · near
36,979 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #2
Taos Pueblo · near
36,979
Taos Pueblo · near
36,979 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #3
Perdido · near
36,983
Perdido · near
36,983 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #4
Murphy · this city
36,989
Murphy · this city
36,989 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #5
Huttig · near
36,989
Huttig · near
36,989 median HH income
26.1% of the leader · rank #6
Brewster Heig… · highest
141,563
Brewster Heig… · highest
141,563 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 Murphy 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: 1,356.
Murphy ranks in the 6th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
6th
percentile, household income
49th
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: Murphy, NC
1,356 people live in Murphy, North Carolina - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Murphy brings in $36,989 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.0%. Typical homes in Murphy are valued around $221,100, and the median resident age is 37.8 years. About 24.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 43.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Murphy's yearly average temperature at 56.7°F with 59.3 inches of precipitation per year and 4.4 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts North Carolina at 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,161 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in North Carolina run around $215, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Murphy workers runs 11.5 minutes, with 60.2% driving alone and 4.3% 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 Murphy'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 housing and income to schools and households to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Murphy, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Murphy?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 60.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.5 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. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Murphy?
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 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Murphy?
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 Hays (1,355 residents, $54,063 income); Alamance (1,358 residents, $88,438 income); Chadbourn (1,347 residents, $19,853 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Corvallis, MT (1,356 residents); Brewster Heights, NY (1,356 residents); Chester, VT (1,356 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.
PlainCities matches 12 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.
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 Murphy?
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 9 public schools within the city match. 24.6% 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
13.0%
Bachelor's degree+
24.6%
Matched public schools
9
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 56.7°F, with 59.3 inches of precipitation and 4.4 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
59.3 in
Mean temperature
56.7°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +195 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +12.1% 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.
2020 estimate
1,613
2025 estimate
1,808
Period change
+12.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 13.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Murphy, NC
34/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$36,989
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).
Murphy profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 48/100 (D) · 24.6%
Poverty rate: 28/100 (F) · 13.0%
Household income: 3/100 (F) · $36,989
How does Murphy compare to other US cities?
Here's how Murphy stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value49% 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 Murphy 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 Murphy near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Murphy ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Murphy only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#618 of 700
12th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#276 of 708
61st percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#293 of 746
60th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#309 of 746
59th 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
6th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Murphy's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$221,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 51% 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
Murphy's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,084 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,453 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.0×, Murphy sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,084 of 15,516 and #10,453 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
$36,989Murphy, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Murphy, 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 Murphy, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)43.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,356
Median Income
$36,989
Median Home Value
$221,100
Median Age
37.8
Poverty Rate
13.0%
Labor force participation
43.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.6%
Climate
Avg Temperature
56.7°F
Annual Precipitation
59.3"
Annual Snowfall
4.4"
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Murphy's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,613 residents
2021
1,630 residents
2022
1,723 residents
2023
1,767 residents
2024
1,790 residents
2025
1,808 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.5 minutes
Drive Alone
60.2%
Carpool
9.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
24.4%
Work from Home
4.3%
Other
2.0%
Based on 508 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 Murphy. 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 Murphy 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 Murphy sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Murphy 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.