Guilford County, NC

County Profile

547,940 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Guilford 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.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 32% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 50% of 1,255 counties measured56
Schools517th of 973 counties measured48
GrowthTop 24% of 1,226 counties measured64
Housing affordability852nd of 1,255 counties measured86
ClimateTop 14% of 1,254 counties measured77
Physical resilienceTop 42% of 1,255 counties measured67
AccessTop 11% of 1,255 counties measured97
Economic stabilityTop 45% of 1,255 counties measured65
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.0% and median household income $68,642, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 37% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.9 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 9 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
547,940
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$68,642
Top 40% nationally
Density
848/sq mi
646.0 sq mi of land
Median age
37.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Guilford County
North Carolina
Metro area
Greensboro-High Point, NC
Nearest major airport
GSO
9 mi · Piedmont Triad Intl
Median home value
$259,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 1.2% over the past year, to 251,244 employed residents.

39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,579$68,642Top 40%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$718$39,376Top 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$60,356Top 37%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate14.6%Top 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.5 minBottom 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.0%Top 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment251,244Top 11%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.7%Bottom 37%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.2%Bottom 37%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force261,745Top 11%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation64.1%Top 22%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 42%of 1,255June 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
202120222023202469k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $68,642 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 — Greensboro-High Point, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand13,470$37,190
Retail Salespersons9,510$30,750
Cashiers7,510$28,630
Stockers and Order Fillers7,470$35,840
Customer Service Representatives7,460$41,240
Cooks, Fast Food6,850$27,880

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.

37% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
132
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.1%
Bottom 49% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
44.6%
Top 44% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Northwest Guilford HighGuilford County Schools2,05520.6
Grimsley HighGuilford County Schools1,96720.1
Page HighGuilford County Schools1,64818.7
Southwest Guilford HighGuilford County Schools1,54718.4
James B Dudley HighGuilford County Schools1,40316.9
Triad Math and Science Academy · charterTriad Math and Science Academy1,37415.622%44%
Ben L. Smith High SchoolGuilford County Schools1,34816.2
Cornerstone Charter Academy-CFA · charterCornerstone Charter Academy1,34317.066%71%
Lucy Ragsdale HighGuilford County Schools1,29216.1
Northern Guilford HighGuilford County Schools1,25120.5
Western Guilford HighGuilford County Schools1,24317.0
Southeast Guilford HighGuilford County Schools1,20915.7

89.1% 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 $1,163 takes 20% 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
20.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,163
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$259,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.79Top 24%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.9%Bottom 7%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±223238,032Top 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$14$1,163Top 19%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,113$259,900Top 26%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.3%Top 19%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 18%of 3,2222024 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
64/ 100
Top 24% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 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 4% since 2020, reaching 558,816 in 2024.

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

At 5.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
2,932
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.4
Top 28% nationally
Year over year
+11%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
48.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024559k539k
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
2020202120222023202420254k2k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+11%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.0 inches, including 7.1 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 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 PIEDMONT TRIAD INTL AP, 8.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index59.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation44.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall7.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
59
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

67 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, hail, tornado, cold wave, earthquake, heat wave, strong wind, 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Guilford County records 7.1 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 14.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.5 per 100,000 residents in Guilford County.

Homicide
7.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.0
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
15.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
10.4
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 Guilford 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 Guilford County rather than Guilford 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 9 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO9 mi10,001 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU58 mi10,000 ft
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT89 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
67
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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.