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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-WILKESBORO-NC · Wilkesboro, NC 3,664 pop · income 9th 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 Wilkesboro
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wilkesboro on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Repton · lowest
41,154
Repton · lowest
41,154 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #1
Hurley · near
41,167
Hurley · near
41,167 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #2
Tidioute · near
41,167
Tidioute · near
41,167 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #3
Dodson · near
41,172
Dodson · near
41,172 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #4
Wilkesboro · this city
41,175
Wilkesboro · this city
41,175 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #5
Shelburn · near
41,176
Shelburn · near
41,176 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Holm · highest
119,608
Lake Holm · highest
119,608 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 Wilkesboro 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: 3,664.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wilkesboro - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Wilkesboro places in the 9th percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
9th
percentile, household income
42nd
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
3rd
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: Wilkesboro, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,664 residents in Wilkesboro, a small town within North Carolina. The typical household in Wilkesboro brings in $41,175 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.2%. Wilkesboro's housing stock carries a median value of $197,600, and the median resident age is 44.2 years. About 22.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Wilkesboro's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 5613.4 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not 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). 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. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wilkesboro'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 schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wilkesboro, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, 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 Wilkesboro?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.9%. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Wilkesboro?
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. 22.7% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Wilkesboro?
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 4.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wilkesboro?
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 Eastover (3,666 residents, $80,000 income); Rutherfordton (3,669 residents, $59,750 income); Welcome (3,649 residents, $65,342 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Centre, AL (3,664 residents); Camden, TN (3,664 residents); Lake Holm, WA (3,664 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 Wilkesboro?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 5613.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 146% 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.
Total reported rate
5613.4
Violent rate
356.0
Property rate
5257.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Wilkesboro growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -25 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% 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.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
3,643
2025 estimate
3,618
Period change
-0.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 16.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Wilkesboro, NC
31/100
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 D
22.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
356 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
16.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$41,175
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Wilkesboro profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.7%
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 356 /100k
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.2%
Household income: 8/100 (F) · $41,175
Where Wilkesboro sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wilkesboro'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 - Wilkesboro highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Wilkesboro, NC (this city): home $197,600, crime 5,613/100k
Centre, AL : home $166,300, crime 3,745/100k
Camden, TN : home $123,600, crime 1,194/100k
Camden, ME : home $473,800, crime 1,168/100k
Stanford, KY : home $154,000, crime 431/100k
Rutherfordton, NC : home $226,900, crime 3,621/100k
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 Wilkesboro compare to other US cities?
Where Wilkesboro sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value42% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety3% 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, Wilkesboro ranks #180 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 Wilkesboro 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 Wilkesboro near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wilkesboro ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wilkesboro only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#568 of 700
19th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#335 of 708
53rd percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#209 of 746
72nd percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#349 of 746
53rd 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
9th percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wilkesboro's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wilkesboro'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 Wilkesboro's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$197,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 58% 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
Wilkesboro's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,554 of 15,516
More affordable than 19% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,545 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.8×, Wilkesboro sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,554 of 15,516 and #9,545 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
$41,175Wilkesboro, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wilkesboro, 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 Wilkesboro, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,664
Median Income
$41,175
Median Home Value
$197,600
Median Age
44.2
Poverty Rate
16.2%
Labor force participation
47.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5613.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
356.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5257.4
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wilkesboro's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,643 residents
2021
3,622 residents
2022
3,622 residents
2023
3,588 residents
2024
3,621 residents
2025
3,618 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.9%
Carpool
1.9%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
6.0%
Work from Home
7.7%
Other
1.1%
Based on 1,425 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 Wilkesboro. 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 Wilkesboro 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 Wilkesboro sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wilkesboro 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.