Brunswick County, NC

County Profile

152,568 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Brunswick County, NC.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 41% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 22% of 1,255 counties69
SchoolsTop 34% of 973 counties64
GrowthTop 4% of 1,226 counties79
Housing affordability1008th of 1,255 counties76
ClimateTop 4% of 1,254 counties83
Physical resilience1124th of 1,255 counties24
AccessTop 35% of 1,255 counties88
Economic stability1022nd of 1,255 counties39
The quick read

Brunswick County ranks in the top 22% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.0% and median household income of $77,024.

Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 21% of median household income and the median home is 4.5 times it — each just short of the thresholds that would count as strained, but both toward the costly end.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, coastal flooding and wildfire.

At a glance

Population
152,568
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,024
Top 22% nationally
Density
179/sq mi
850.1 sq mi of land
Median age
56.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Brunswick County
North Carolina
Metro area
Wilmington, NC
Nearest major airport
ILM
25 mi · Wilmington Intl
Median home value
$349,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 58% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 65,830 employed residents.

35% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,734$77,024Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,505$45,985Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.2%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.3 minTop 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher34.7%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment65,830Top 37%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.8%Top 15%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 45%June 2026
Labor force68,565Top 37%June 2026
Labor force participation49.1%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 42%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.33.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.0% 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
202120222023202477k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,024 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 — Wilmington, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons6,310$30,790
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,100$27,460
Registered Nurses5,040$80,970
Waiters and Waitresses4,920$30,610
Cashiers4,860$28,520
Cooks, Fast Food3,880$27,500

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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 49% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
22
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.1%
Top 24% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
49.3%
Top 29% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
North Brunswick HighBrunswick County Schools1,62018.2
West Brunswick HighBrunswick County Schools1,46616.5
South Brunswick HighBrunswick County Schools1,15417.2
Classical Charter Schools of Leland · charterClassical Charter Schools of Leland93524.060%62%
Belville ElementaryBrunswick County Schools81215.352%50%
Leland MiddleBrunswick County Schools80617.917%37%
Lincoln ElementaryBrunswick County Schools73815.744%37%
Town Creek ElementaryBrunswick County Schools70215.349%54%
Union ElementaryBrunswick County Schools65416.083%75%
Shallotte MiddleBrunswick County Schools62716.537%52%
Virginia Williamson ElemBrunswick County Schools61016.950%51%
South Brunswick MiddleBrunswick County Schools58516.327%52%

99.5% 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 $1,351 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,351
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$349,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.54Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate84.6%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±9899,077Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$52$1,351Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,851$349,800Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate30.2%Top 9%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
79/ 100
Top 4% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 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 grown 21% since 2020, reaching 167,112 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 4% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 33.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
5,059
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
33.2
Top 1% nationally
Year over year
+3%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
4.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024167k138k
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
20222023202420257k4k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−10%).

Weather & climate

8 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 36°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 60.1 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WILMINGTON INTL AP, 24.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation60.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low36°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing35°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

24 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
WildfireModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
EarthquakeModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Brunswick County records 6.9 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 17.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.5 per 100,000 residents in Brunswick County.

Homicide
6.9
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
17.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
15.0
per 100,000 residents

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 Brunswick 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 Brunswick County rather than Brunswick County 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
Wilmington IntlILM25 mi8,016 ft
Myrtle Beach IntlMYR47 mi9,503 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO96 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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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
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
2019-20 school year; 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.

Cities in Brunswick County, NC