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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-WENDELL-NC · Wendell, NC 11,585 pop · income 74th 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 Wendell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wendell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Smithfield · lowest
37,827
Smithfield · lowest
37,827 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #1
Wendell · this city
93,848
Wendell · this city
93,848 median HH income
51.1% of the leader · rank #2
West Hills · near
93,851
West Hills · near
93,851 median HH income
51.1% of the leader · rank #3
Mount Washing… · near
93,852
Mount Washing… · near
93,852 median HH income
51.1% of the leader · rank #4
Lazy Mountain · near
93,854
Lazy Mountain · near
93,854 median HH income
51.1% of the leader · rank #5
Adairsville · near
93,854
Adairsville · near
93,854 median HH income
51.1% of the leader · rank #6
New Baltimore · highest
183,696
New Baltimore · highest
183,696 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 Wendell 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: 11,585.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wendell - the verdict
Wendell ranks in the 74th percentile for household income and the 56th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
74th
percentile, household income
67th
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
56th
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: Wendell, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 11,585 residents in Wendell, a small town within North Carolina. Households in Wendell report a median income of $93,848 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.3%. Home values in Wendell run a median of $316,700, and the median resident age is 38.3 years. Educational attainment runs 37.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 73.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1,277 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 271% from five years earlier. Wendell reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1210.0 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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). 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. Workers in Wendell report an average commute of 22.3 minutes, with 66.4% driving alone and 24.2% 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 Wendell'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 schools and households to population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wendell, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Wendell?
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 8 public schools within the city match. 37.3% 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +9,690 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +96.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,277 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wendell?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1210.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 47% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wendell?
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 Spring Lake (11,613 residents, $50,497 income); Lincolnton (11,503 residents, $43,294 income); Kings Mountain (11,472 residents, $45,507 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Greensburg, IN (11,585 residents); Lakeland, CA (11,587 residents); Norton, OH (11,576 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wendell?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.3 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
66.4%
Work from home
24.2%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,689 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Wendell?
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 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.4×
Home value
$316,700
Household income
$93,848
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
B
City profile score · Wendell, NC
70/100
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.
Poverty rate B+
3.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B
$93,848
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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.
Violent crime C+
135 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Wendell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.3%
Household income: 73/100 (B) · $93,848
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.3%
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Violent crime: 62/100 (C+) · 135 /100k
Where Wendell sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wendell'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 - Wendell highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Wendell, NC (this city): home $316,700, crime 1,210/100k
Greensburg, IN : home $181,000, crime 1,608/100k
Norton, OH : home $181,900, crime 1,768/100k
Lindon, UT : home $638,300, crime 2,005/100k
Ringwood, NJ : home $434,800, crime 215/100k
Spring Lake, NC : home $101,300, crime 3,918/100k
Lincolnton, NC : home $224,600, crime 2,484/100k
Kings Mountain, NC : home $177,700, crime 2,914/100k
Smithfield, NC : home $217,000, crime 4,054/100k
Elon, NC : home $355,800, crime 388/100k
Archdale, NC : home $188,200, crime 1,227/100k
How does Wendell compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wendell stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income74% higher than other cities
Home value67% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety56% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just North Carolina and the picture shifts: Wendell ranks #29 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wendell 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 Wendell near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wendell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wendell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#85 of 700
88th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#147 of 708
79th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#569 of 746
23rd percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#172 of 746
77th 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
74th percentile nationally for median household income · 56th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wendell's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wendell'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 Wendell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$316,70033rd percentilemore affordable than 33% 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
Wendell's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,460 of 15,516
More affordable than 45% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,366 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.4×, Wendell sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,460 of 15,516 and #1,366 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
$93,848Wendell, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wendell, 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 Wendell, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,585
Median Income
$93,848
Median Home Value
$316,700
Median Age
38.3
Poverty Rate
3.3%
Labor force participation
73.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1210.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
135.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1074.9
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
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wendell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,997 residents
2021
11,588 residents
2022
12,443 residents
2023
14,444 residents
2024
16,786 residents
2025
19,687 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
1,277
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1,277
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
110.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
344
344
0
$59.6M
2020
702
414
288
$108.6M
2021
423
423
0
$67.3M
2022
941
406
535
$171.9M
2023
1,054
962
92
$250.4M
2024
1,277
1,277
0
$287.4M
Permit volume increased 271% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.3 minutes
Drive Alone
66.4%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
24.2%
Other
2.4%
Based on 6,689 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 Wendell. 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 Wendell 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 Wendell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wendell 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.