Apex, North Carolina

Area Profile

70,630 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Apex, in Wake County.

82out of 100
Area Score
Top 1% of 2,943 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Data updated · 14 sources
OpportunityTop 1% of 3,899 cities measured92
SchoolsTop 10% of 2,668 cities measured83
GrowthTop 4% of 2,973 cities measured82
Housing affordabilityTop 35% of 4,147 cities measured89
ClimateTop 43% of 4,223 cities measured72
Physical resilienceTop 38% of 4,182 cities measured69
AccessTop 33% of 4,226 cities measured96
Economic stabilityTop 3% of 4,226 cities measured84
The quick read

Apex ranks in the top 1% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.7% and median household income of $144,135.

1,630 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 13% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Raleigh-Durham Intl is 12 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.

At a glance

Population
70,630
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$144,135
Top 6% nationally
Density
2,624/sq mi
26.9 sq mi of land
Median age
36.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wake County
North Carolina
Metro area
Raleigh-Cary, NC
Nearest major airport
RDU
12 mi · Raleigh-Durham Intl
Median home value
$576,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.7% is lower than 98% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.5% over the past year, to 40,634 employed residents.

70% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Median household income of $144,135 is higher than at least 94% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$9,485$144,135Top 6%of 29,4632024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,323$60,473Top 10%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate2.2%Bottom 12%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.6 minBottom 49%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher69.5%Top 4%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment40,634Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.3%Top 8%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.5%Top 20%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force41,777Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation73.0%Top 12%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,740Top 42%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,990Top 44%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 24%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate2.7%Bottom 2%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.42.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.7% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024144k121k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $144,135 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Raleigh-Cary, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons18,660$33,100
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand17,060$38,470
Cashiers14,350$29,770
Customer Service Representatives13,620$41,900
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,790$29,080
Registered Nurses12,780$84,830

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

65% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 71% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.0 students for every full-time teacher across 21 public schools, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
64.9%
Top 6% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
71.3%
Top 3% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Apex Friendship HighWake County Schools2,74821.1
Apex HighWake County Schools2,44919.9
Middle Creek HighWake County Schools1,58718.2
Apex Friendship MiddleWake County Schools1,41219.372%81%
The Math and Science Academy of Apex · charterThe Math and Science Academy of Apex1,08018.6
Olive Chapel ElementaryWake County Schools1,06615.080%82%
Salem MiddleWake County Schools1,05717.962%67%
Lufkin Road MiddleWake County Schools1,03517.055%66%
Apex Friendship ElementaryWake County Schools89614.7
Oakview ElementaryWake County Schools87314.867%72%
Scotts Ridge ElementaryWake County Schools86915.576%74%
Apex MiddleWake County Schools86716.152%72%

19.0% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against North Carolina’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 2% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 98.4, against 100 for the nation. Housing drives most of that difference.

A new two-bedroom lease runs about $2,119, some 11% above the $1,902 tenants already here pay — the market has moved faster than sitting tenancies have.

Median rent of $1,902 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home at $576,100 costs 4.0 times the median household income of $144,135, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
98.4

Prices here run about 2% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
15.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Market rent, two bedroom
$2,119
what a new lease costs · FY2026
Median gross rent
$1,902
what tenants now pay · 2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$576,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index98.4Bottom 40%of 3,6582023
Home price to income4.00Top 26%of 27,9722024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.5%Top 49%of 31,7172024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±73226,500Top 2%of 32,1772024 ACS 5-Year
Market rent, one bedroom$1,931Top 22%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, three bedroom$2,662Top 30%of 4,067FY2026
Market rent, two bedroom$2,119Top 28%of 4,067FY2026
Median gross rent ±$59$1,902Top 10%of 23,3292024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,002$576,100Top 9%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.8%Bottom 30%of 22,8042024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.8%Bottom 28%of 31,8722024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
82/ 100
Top 4% of 2,973 published city profiles
The most recent move in permitting was downward, in a series running from 2020 to 2025. That is the direction of the recent run, not a comparison of the two endpoints.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 17% since 2020, reaching 75,977 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 1,223 units authorized in 2025, 40% below the year before.

At 23.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1,630
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
23.1
Top 2% nationally
Year over year
+13%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
50.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202476k65k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020222023202420252k1k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−14%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.1 inches, including 5.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 46, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RALEIGH DURHAM INTL AP, 12.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index60.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall5.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
46
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
60
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modeled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — a little over half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and about a fifth of all US counties do, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

69 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and hail, with inland flooding alone responsible for 70% of it.

Inland floodingModerate
HailModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, tornado, ice storm, lightning, earthquake, winter weather, cold wave, wildfire, drought, strong wind.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
53
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
801
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Apex's police department reported 53 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 801.

Wake County records 2.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 8.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.6 per 100,000 residents in Wake County.

Homicide
2.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Offenses are reported to the FBI by Apex’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Wake County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city center and a quiet suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Apex rather than Apex itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Some things people look for are not on this page, and each is absent for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighborhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Raleigh-Durham Intl at 12 miles.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU12 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO65 mi10,001 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO76 mi11,498 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
82
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Other cities in Raleigh-Cary, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RaleighWake County481,03173vs Apex
CaryWake County179,30677vs Apex
Wake ForestWake County52,84481vs Apex
Holly SpringsWake County45,24879vs Apex
Fuquay-VarinaWake County40,48575vs Apex
GarnerWake County34,47370vs Apex
MorrisvilleWake County31,42283vs Apex
ClaytonJohnston County29,32071vs Apex
KnightdaleWake County20,21473vs Apex
WendellWake County13,06474vs Apex
SmithfieldJohnston County12,116vs Apex
RolesvilleWake County10,76681vs Apex

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Apex side by side with a similar place.

Apex vs Wake ForestApex vs MorrisvilleApex vs BurkeApex vs Five Forks

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
SafetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
SafetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April 2025 to March 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
SchoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
HousingU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
Fair Market Rents
FY2026Annually, each October for the coming fiscal year
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Apex

4 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2750248,530$143,92283
2753925,878$145,94783
2752320,269$135,62581
275625,659$172,95580