Cornelius, North Carolina

Area Profile

32,783 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cornelius, in Mecklenburg 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 12% of 3,904 published cities76
SchoolsTop 21% of 2,668 published cities74
Housing affordability2282nd of 4,223 published cities78
ClimateTop 39% of 4,223 published cities72
Physical resilience2358th of 4,182 published cities51
AccessTop 47% of 4,226 published cities93
Economic stabilityTop 31% of 4,226 published cities69
The quick read

Cornelius ranks in the top 12% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $113,767.

In the public schools here, 62% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 18.9 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
32,783
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$113,767
Top 12% nationally
Density
2,583/sq mi
12.7 sq mi of land
Median age
44.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mecklenburg County
North Carolina
Metro area
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
18 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$559,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 87% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 16,917 employed residents.

62% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 94% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,905$113,767Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,421$77,539Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.4%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.5 minBottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher62.2%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,917Bottom 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.2%Bottom 48%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 45%June 2026
Labor force17,504Bottom 18%June 2026
Labor force participation65.5%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,900Top 49%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,990Bottom 40%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 24%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 13%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.52.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.4% 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
2021202220232024115k95k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $113,767 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 — Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand40,540$38,850
Retail Salespersons35,150$33,580
Cashiers27,350$29,610
Fast Food and Counter Workers27,050$28,880
Registered Nurses27,010$90,620
Customer Service Representatives26,120$44,980

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.

62% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 18.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
61.8%
Top 12% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
64.3%
Top 14% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
William Amos Hough HighCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,51821.2
Bailey MiddleCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools1,31518.565%75%
J.V. Washam ElementaryCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools81817.863%57%
Cornelius ElementaryCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools54215.160%56%
Lakeside Charter Academy · charterLakeside Charter Academy22115.840%49%

22.4% 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 $1,722 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,722
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$559,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.92Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.5%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±47614,956Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$56$1,722Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$43,464$559,400Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.2%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 39%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 9% since 2020, reaching 34,366 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202434k32k
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

6 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, including 3.5 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate 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 CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AP, 17.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index66.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall3.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
66
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

51 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate

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

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.

Mecklenburg County records 8.2 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 12.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.1 per 100,000 residents in Mecklenburg County.

Homicide
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.0
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.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Mecklenburg 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 Cornelius rather than Cornelius 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT18 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO68 mi10,001 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL94 mi8,002 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 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
CharlotteMecklenburg County903,844vs Cornelius
ConcordCabarrus County108,719vs Cornelius
GastoniaGaston County82,884vs Cornelius
Rock HillYork County75,25970vs Cornelius
HuntersvilleMecklenburg County63,969vs Cornelius
KannapolisCabarrus County57,890vs Cornelius
MooresvilleIredell County52,38168vs Cornelius
Indian TrailUnion County42,036vs Cornelius
MonroeUnion County36,75962vs Cornelius
SalisburyRowan County35,825vs Cornelius
Fort MillYork County30,77584vs Cornelius
MatthewsMecklenburg County30,577vs Cornelius

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)
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 Cornelius

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2803131,733$113,368