Clemmons, North Carolina

Area Profile

21,871 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Clemmons, in Forsyth County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 41% of 3,904 published cities60
SchoolsTop 21% of 2,668 published cities74
Housing affordabilityTop 30% of 4,223 published cities91
ClimateTop 20% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilienceTop 50% of 4,182 published cities59
Access2793rd of 4,226 published cities87
Economic stabilityTop 28% of 4,226 published cities70
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.8% and median household income $87,655, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 60% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.9 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 17% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.8 times that income.

At a glance

Population
21,871
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$87,655
Top 27% nationally
Density
1,825/sq mi
12.0 sq mi of land
Median age
41.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Forsyth County
North Carolina
Metro area
Winston-Salem, NC
Nearest major airport
GSO
25 mi · Piedmont Triad Intl
Median home value
$335,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 70% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 174,492 employed residents.

49% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,436$87,655Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,452$47,012Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.5%Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.0 minBottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher49.4%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment174,492Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.4%Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 46%June 2026
Labor force181,354Top 31%June 2026
Labor force participation67.0%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$59,130Bottom 12%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,380Bottom 10%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 30%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202488k76k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $87,655 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 — Winston-Salem, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses10,180$86,120
Retail Salespersons6,790$30,100
Cashiers6,220$28,130
Cooks, Fast Food6,120$27,280
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand5,490$37,160
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,900$28,640

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 Forsyth County, NC, which contains this city.

60% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 61% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
59.8%
Top 15% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
60.9%
Top 17% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
West Forsyth HighWinston Salem / Forsyth County Schools2,14518.7
Clemmons ElementaryWinston Salem / Forsyth County Schools83916.162%65%
Frank Morgan ElementaryWinston Salem / Forsyth County Schools76114.952%47%
Southwest ElementaryWinston Salem / Forsyth County Schools54615.267%73%

60.9% 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 $1,269 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,269
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$335,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.83Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.7%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3549,312Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$103$1,269Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,203$335,800Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.4%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.7%Bottom 32%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 →

Population has grown 6% since 2020, reaching 22,471 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k21k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.2 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and about 4 days a year pass 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 WINSTON SALEM RYNLDS AP, 11.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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 modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, 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

59 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingModerate
TornadoModerate
HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LightningModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, strong wind, hail, heat wave, 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.

Forsyth County records 8.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.4 per 100,000 residents in Forsyth County.

Homicide
8.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.3
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 Forsyth 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 Clemmons rather than Clemmons 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 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO25 mi10,001 ft
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT65 mi10,000 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU90 mi10,000 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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Other cities in Winston-Salem, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Winston-SalemForsyth County252,03759vs Clemmons
KernersvilleForsyth County27,83064vs Clemmons
ThomasvilleDavidson County27,32158vs Clemmons
LexingtonDavidson County19,69058vs Clemmons
LewisvilleForsyth County13,828vs Clemmons

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 Clemmons side by side with a similar place.

Clemmons vs BenbrookClemmons vs HighlandClemmons vs SelmaClemmons vs Crowley

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)
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
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
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 Clemmons

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2701230,543$96,250