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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-NEW-BERN-NC · New Bern, NC 31,563 pop · income 30th pct · 26 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 New Bern
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Bern on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Goldsboro · lowest
47,005
Goldsboro · lowest
47,005 median HH income
34.1% of the leader · rank #1
Bellair-Meado… · near
56,887
Bellair-Meado… · near
56,887 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #2
Orono · near
56,890
Orono · near
56,890 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #3
New Bern · this city
56,893
New Bern · this city
56,893 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #4
The Hideout · near
56,901
The Hideout · near
56,901 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #5
Madisonville · near
56,902
Madisonville · near
56,902 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #6
Bel Air North · highest
137,995
Bel Air North · highest
137,995 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 New Bern 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: 31,563.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Bern - the verdict
New Bern ranks in the 30th percentile for household income and the 33rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
46th
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
33rd
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: New Bern, NC
31,563 people live in New Bern, North Carolina - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $56,893 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.5%. Typical homes in New Bern are valued around $211,500, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. Educational attainment runs 29.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 303 residential building permits were authorized in New Bern (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1978.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near 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: the state registers 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,161 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts North Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $215 (state average). Commute times here average 17.1 minutes, with 81.6% driving alone and 6.0% 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 New Bern'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 schools and households to population change to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Bern, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in New Bern?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1978.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 29.6% 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.
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.
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 26 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Bern?
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Cornelius (32,009 residents, $114,688 income); Sanford (30,833 residents, $54,294 income); Garner (32,543 residents, $77,496 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fitchburg, WI (31,566 residents); Lakeside, FL (31,548 residents); Bel Air North, MD (31,599 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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 New Bern 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 +3,381 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 303 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+10.8%
2025 estimate
34,724
2020 estimate
31,343
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in New Bern?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.5%, 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. 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.
Household income
$56,893
Home value
$211,500
Value / income
3.7×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in New Bern?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.1 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
6.0%
Drive alone
81.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 14,202 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 11.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
D
City profile score · New Bern, NC
41/100
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.
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 C
29.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$56,893
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
363 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
New Bern profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.6%
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.5%
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,893
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 363 /100k
Where New Bern sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Bern'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 - New Bern highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
New Bern, NC (this city): home $211,500, crime 1,979/100k
Fitchburg, WI : home $389,400, crime 1,616/100k
Shawnee, OK : home $147,800, crime 3,344/100k
Nicholasville, KY : home $210,700, crime 1,610/100k
Cornelius, NC : home $512,400, crime 1,140/100k
Garner, NC : home $320,300, crime 4,864/100k
Morrisville, NC : home $481,800, crime 2,533/100k
Matthews, NC : home $406,800, crime 2,839/100k
Goldsboro, NC : home $173,700, crime 6,940/100k
How does New Bern compare to other US cities?
Here's how New Bern stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value46% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety33% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at North Carolina, New Bern ranks #73 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares New Bern 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 New Bern near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Bern ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Bern only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#377 of 700
46th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#305 of 708
57th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#321 of 746
57th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#234 of 746
69th 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 33rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Bern's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Bern'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 New Bern's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$211,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 54% 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
New Bern's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,781 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,710 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.7×, New Bern sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,781 of 15,516 and #1,710 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
$56,893New Bern, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Bern, 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 New Bern, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
31,563
Median Income
$56,893
Median Home Value
$211,500
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
11.5%
Labor force participation
55.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1978.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
362.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1616.1
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
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Bern's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
31,343 residents
2021
31,833 residents
2022
32,552 residents
2023
33,784 residents
2024
34,210 residents
2025
34,724 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
303
housing units authorized
Single-Family
284
detached homes
Multifamily
19
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
9.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
202
202
0
$38.0M
2020
330
198
132
$55.3M
2021
18
18
0
$4.3M
2022
355
281
74
$81.4M
2023
239
237
2
$52.9M
2024
303
284
19
$70.4M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.1 minutes
Drive Alone
81.6%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
6.0%
Other
2.9%
Based on 14,202 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 New Bern. 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 New Bern 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 New Bern sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Bern 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.