Carrboro, North Carolina

Area Profile

21,204 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Carrboro, in Orange County.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 42% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 38% of 3,904 published cities62
Growth1981st of 2,973 published cities41
Housing affordability3119th of 4,223 published cities64
ClimateTop 24% of 4,223 published cities77
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 4,182 published cities60
AccessTop 49% of 4,226 published cities92
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 4,226 published cities64
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.3% and median household income $85,743, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 6.3 times that income.

A major airport is 17 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
21,204
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$85,743
Top 28% nationally
Density
3,271/sq mi
6.5 sq mi of land
Median age
33.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Orange County
North Carolina
Metro area
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Nearest major airport
RDU
17 mi · Raleigh-Durham Intl
Median home value
$539,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 89% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 74,925 employed residents.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$13,984$85,743Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,333$55,875Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.2%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.9 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher69.9%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment74,925Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.8%Bottom 12%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 21%June 2026
Labor force77,476Top 43%June 2026
Labor force participation72.4%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$79,700Top 18%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$60,720Top 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 35%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 11%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202486k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $85,743 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 — Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Software Developers9,790$135,620
Retail Salespersons5,850$31,790
Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants5,820$46,860
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,350$29,170
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand5,250$37,750
Cashiers4,840$29,920

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Orange County, NC, which contains this city.

There are 13.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Carrboro HighChapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools88513.8
Carrboro ElementaryChapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools51512.952%64%

31.2% 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 →

Median rent of $1,470 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
20.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,470
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$539,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.29Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate43.5%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±43710,189Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$67$1,470Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$38,058$539,400Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.6%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.0%Bottom 38%2024 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
41/ 100
Ranks 1981 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

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 fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 21,079 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 19% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
26
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 35% nationally
Year over year
+117%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
19.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202421k21k
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
20202022202320242025439.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−59%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHAPEL HILL WILLIAMS AP, 1.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

60 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and lightning.

Inland floodingElevated
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Orange County records 3.8 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 9.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.3 per 100,000 residents in Orange County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.6
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.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Orange County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Carrboro rather than Carrboro 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

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU17 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO49 mi10,001 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO93 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
63
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Other cities in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
DurhamDurham County291,46764vs Carrboro
Chapel HillOrange County61,60762vs Carrboro
MebaneOrange County19,53864vs Carrboro

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.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
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)
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)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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)
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
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

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 Carrboro

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2751013,868$61,83757