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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-SPRUCE-PINE-NC · Spruce Pine, NC 2,381 pop · income 16th pct · 4 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 Spruce Pine
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Spruce Pine on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Yanceyville · lowest
28,662
Yanceyville · lowest
28,662 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #1
Mio · near
47,578
Mio · near
47,578 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #2
Oak Hill-Piney · near
47,578
Oak Hill-Piney · near
47,578 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #3
Spruce Pine · this city
47,583
Spruce Pine · this city
47,583 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #4
Falls Creek · near
47,589
Falls Creek · near
47,589 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #5
New Waverly · near
47,589
New Waverly · near
47,589 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #6
Adamstown · highest
198,993
Adamstown · highest
198,993 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 Spruce Pine 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: 2,381.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Spruce Pine - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Spruce Pine lands in the 16th percentile for household income and the 43rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
43rd
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
43rd
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: Spruce Pine, NC
North Carolina's Spruce Pine is a small town, with 2,381 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $47,583 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.8%. Typical homes in Spruce Pine are valued around $202,300, and the median resident age is 46.1 years. 20.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 52.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Spruce Pine reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1598.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 52.5°F with 57.2 inches of precipitation per year.
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. 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. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 66.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Spruce Pine'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 within-city variation to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to climate and hazard context to schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Spruce Pine, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Spruce Pine?
PlainCities matches 4 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 journey to work look like in Spruce Pine?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.2%. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Spruce Pine?
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 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Spruce Pine?
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 Taylorsville (2,386 residents, $48,542 income); Yanceyville (2,376 residents, $28,662 income); Richlands (2,387 residents, $61,607 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Adamstown, MD (2,381 residents); Maurice, LA (2,382 residents); Madelia, MN (2,380 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Spruce Pine?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1598.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 30% lower 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.
Total reported rate
1598.9
Violent rate
91.4
Property rate
1507.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What physical conditions frame life in Spruce Pine?
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 52.5°F, with 57.2 inches of precipitation. 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
57.2 in
Mean temperature
52.5°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the education layer cover for Spruce Pine?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 20.1% 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
12.8%
Bachelor's degree+
20.1%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Spruce Pine growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +23 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.1% 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
2,188
2025 estimate
2,211
Period change
+1.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
D
City profile score · Spruce Pine, NC
43/100
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.
Violent crime B
91 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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 F
20.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$47,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Spruce Pine profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 73/100 (B) · 91 /100k
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.1%
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.8%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,583
Where Spruce Pine sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Spruce Pine'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 - Spruce Pine highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Spruce Pine, NC (this city): home $202,300, crime 1,599/100k
Madelia, MN : home $158,300, crime 380/100k
Gunter, TX : home $535,400, crime 499/100k
Taylorsville, NC : home $210,300, crime 1,196/100k
Richlands, NC : home $217,800, crime 1,221/100k
Four Oaks, NC : home $222,100, crime 724/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Spruce Pine compare to other US cities?
Here's how Spruce Pine stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value43% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety43% 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, Spruce Pine ranks #52 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 Spruce Pine 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 Spruce Pine near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Spruce Pine ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Spruce Pine only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#502 of 700
28th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#325 of 708
54th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#299 of 746
60th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#413 of 746
45th 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 43rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Spruce Pine's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Spruce Pine'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 Spruce Pine's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$202,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 57% 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
Spruce Pine's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,396 of 15,516
More affordable than 27% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,809 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.3×, Spruce Pine sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,396 of 15,516 and #8,809 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$47,583Spruce Pine, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Spruce Pine, 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 Spruce Pine, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,381
Median Income
$47,583
Median Home Value
$202,300
Median Age
46.1
Poverty Rate
12.8%
Labor force participation
52.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1598.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
91.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1507.5
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
52.5°F
Annual Precipitation
57.2"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Spruce Pine's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,188 residents
2021
2,191 residents
2022
2,182 residents
2023
2,181 residents
2024
2,220 residents
2025
2,211 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.2%
Carpool
15.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.5%
Work from Home
5.9%
Based on 1,041 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 Spruce Pine. 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 Spruce Pine 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 Spruce Pine sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Spruce Pine 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, 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.