27510Carrboro, North Carolina

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 27510.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 39% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3183rd of 6,210 ZIP areas measured54
Growth3682nd of 5,428 ZIP areas measured39
Housing affordability6293rd of 6,685 ZIP areas measured40
ClimateTop 24% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured77
Physical resilienceTop 48% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured60
Access3423rd of 6,791 ZIP areas measured93
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured60
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.3% and median household income $61,837, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 7.3 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 29% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
13,868
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,837
Bottom 33% nationally
Density
4,336/sq mi
3.2 sq mi of land
Median age
31.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Carrboro
North Carolina
Metro area
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Nearest major airport
RDU
17 mi · Raleigh-Durham Intl
Median home value
$449,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 91% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

63% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 94% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,169$61,837Bottom 33%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,507$46,098Top 25%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.8%Top 32%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.2 minBottom 30%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher63.0%Top 6%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment74,925Top 41%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.8%Bottom 12%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force77,476Top 41%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation74.5%Top 7%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$79,700Top 15%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$60,720Top 15%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 36%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 9%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,837 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Carrboro, NC, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 $1,476 takes 29% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
28.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
7.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,476
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$449,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income7.27Top 6%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate27.7%Bottom 3%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4637,726Top 21%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,476Top 23%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$29,879$449,700Top 16%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income28.6%Top 7%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.9%Bottom 41%of 33,0282024 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
39/ 100
Ranks 3682 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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 ZIP areas.

Units permitted
26
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 30% nationally
Year over year
+117%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
19.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Carrboro, NC, the city containing this ZIP code.

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, 1.9 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. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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 27510 rather than 27510 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 IntlGSO50 mi10,001 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO92 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
57
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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.

27510 vs Carrboro

How this ZIP area compares with Carrboro as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

27510
Carrboro
Median household income
$61,837
vs
$85,743
Per capita income
$46,098
vs
$55,875
Population density
4,336/sq mi
vs
3,271/sq mi
Median home value
$449,700
vs
$539,400
Median gross rent
$1,476
vs
$1,470
Homeownership rate
27.7%
vs
43.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
63.0%
vs
69.9%
Poverty rate
14.8%
vs
12.2%
Median age
31.7
vs
33.4

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.