Halifax County, NC

County Profile

47,675 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Halifax 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.

45out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1229th of 1,255 counties18
Schools925th of 973 counties12
Growth814th of 1,226 counties41
Housing affordability649th of 1,255 counties92
ClimateTop 14% of 1,254 counties77
Physical resilience834th of 1,255 counties48
Access1000th of 1,255 counties64
Economic stability1209th of 1,255 counties20
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Halifax County in the bottom 2%.

In the public schools here, 19% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.6 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.3 times that income.

At a glance

Population
47,675
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,590
Bottom 9% nationally
Density
66/sq mi
723.7 sq mi of land
Median age
43.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Halifax County
North Carolina
Metro area
Roanoke Rapids, NC
Nearest major airport
ISO
64 mi · Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld
Median home value
$106,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 19% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 17,037 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,590 is below 91% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,970$45,590Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,372$27,648Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.8%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.7 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.1%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,037Bottom 17%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.8%Bottom 10%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 34%June 2026
Labor force17,953Bottom 17%June 2026
Labor force participation51.9%Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 26%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.54.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.1% 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
202120222023202446k38k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,590 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.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 29% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
23
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.5%
Bottom 4% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
29.1%
Bottom 4% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Roanoke Rapids High SchoolRoanoke Rapids City Schools77616.5
Manning Elementary SchoolRoanoke Rapids City Schools63015.429%37%
Belmont Elementary SchoolRoanoke Rapids City Schools61416.222%27%
Chaloner Middle SchoolRoanoke Rapids City Schools60517.822%37%
Hobgood Charter School · charterHobgood Charter School56913.241%49%
KIPP Halifax College Preparatory · charterKIPP Halifax College Preparatory52815.514%20%
Northwest Halifax Collegiate and TechnicHalifax County Schools32124.7
Weldon Elementary Global AcademyWeldon City Schools27218.15%19%
Everetts Elementary S.T.E.M. AcademyHalifax County Schools25414.98%17%
William R Davie Middle S.T.E.M. AcademyHalifax County Schools24315.23%22%
Inborden Elementary S.T.E.A.M. AcademyHalifax County Schools22512.513%17%
Southeast Halifax Collegiate Prep AcademHalifax County Schools20410.7

98.9% 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 $813 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.3 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$813
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$106,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.33Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.9%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6224,872Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$44$813Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,784$106,200Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.4%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate18.0%Top 33%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
41/ 100
Ranks 814 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 fallen 3% since 2020, reaching 46,992 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
98
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 36% nationally
Year over year
+31%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202448k47k
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
20222023202420257455
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+6%).

Weather & climate

7 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.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ROANOKE RAPIDS AP, 13.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
MetricValueSource period
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

48 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtModerate
HurricaneElevated
TornadoModerate
Cold waveModerate
Strong windModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, inland flooding, earthquake, hail, ice storm, lightning, 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.

Halifax County records 21.1 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 23.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.2 per 100,000 residents in Halifax County.

Homicide
21.1
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
23.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
17.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.5
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 Halifax 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 Halifax County rather than Halifax 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 64 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO64 mi11,498 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU69 mi10,000 ft
Newport News/Williamsburg IntlPHF88 mi8,003 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
45
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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 Halifax County, NC