Davidson County, NC

County Profile

172,954 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Davidson 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.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 37% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity733rd of 1,255 counties52
Schools492nd of 973 counties51
GrowthTop 14% of 1,226 counties71
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 1,255 counties95
ClimateTop 9% of 1,254 counties78
Physical resilience763rd of 1,255 counties52
AccessTop 37% of 1,255 counties87
Economic stability654th of 1,255 counties61
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $64,172, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 43% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.6 students for every teacher.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 1,230 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 30% on the prior year.

At a glance

Population
172,954
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,172
Bottom 47% nationally
Density
313/sq mi
553.0 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Davidson County
North Carolina
Metro area
Winston-Salem, NC
Nearest major airport
GSO
26 mi · Piedmont Triad Intl
Median home value
$219,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 79% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.0% over the past year, to 76,335 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,806$64,172Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,059$34,544Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.8%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.7 minTop 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.7%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment76,335Top 33%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.0%Bottom 22%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.0%Bottom 41%June 2026
Labor force79,113Top 33%June 2026
Labor force participation59.9%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 21%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.33.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.5% 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
202120222023202464k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,172 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.

43% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% 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
47
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
43.0%
Top 36% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
43.3%
Bottom 47% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oak Grove HighDavidson County Schools99219.1
North Davidson HighDavidson County Schools93518.0
Central Davidson HighDavidson County Schools89717.9
Lexington Senior High SchoolLexington City Schools88915.1
Ledford Senior HighDavidson County Schools77616.9
Thomasville PrimaryThomasville City Schools75317.137%27%
West Davidson HighDavidson County Schools74018.0
Oak Grove MiddleDavidson County Schools72718.647%62%
Wallburg ElementaryDavidson County Schools71717.970%63%
East Davidson HighDavidson County Schools70918.7
North Davidson MiddleDavidson County Schools70618.142%52%
Central Davidson MiddleDavidson County Schools68616.742%47%

76.3% 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 $901 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$901
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$219,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.41Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.4%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6476,396Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$33$901Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,369$219,100Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.8%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.6%Bottom 22%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
71/ 100
Top 14% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 5% since 2020, reaching 177,809 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 18% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 7.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,230
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.1
Top 17% nationally
Year over year
+30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
17.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024178k169k
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
20222023202420251k904
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+35%).

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 43, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

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, 23.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index59.02024 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 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
59
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

52 / 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
LightningModerate
LandslideModerate

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

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.

Davidson County records 7.4 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 23.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.3 per 100,000 residents in Davidson County.

Homicide
7.4
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
23.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
22.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
20.0
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 Davidson 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 Davidson County rather than Davidson 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 26 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO26 mi10,001 ft
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT58 mi10,000 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU80 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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Area Score
65
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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
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.