Mecklenburg County, NC

County Profile

1,154,681 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Mecklenburg 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 40% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured72
SchoolsTop 48% of 973 counties measured52
Growth699th of 1,226 counties measured46
Housing affordability1056th of 1,255 counties measured71
ClimateTop 33% of 1,254 counties measured72
Physical resilience727th of 1,255 counties measured54
AccessTop 3% of 1,255 counties measured99
Economic stabilityTop 16% of 1,255 counties measured85
The quick read

Mecklenburg County ranks in the top 19% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.6% and median household income of $87,005.

Residential permitting has slowed: 5,025 units authorized over the past twelve months, 51% below the prior year.

Housing sits below most published city profiles for affordability: rent takes 22% of median household income and the median home is 4.7 times it — each just short of the thresholds that would count as strained, but both toward the costly end.

At a glance

Population
1,154,681
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$87,005
Top 11% nationally
Density
2,205/sq mi
523.6 sq mi of land
Median age
35.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mecklenburg County
North Carolina
Metro area
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
7 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$406,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.6% is lower than 75% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 632,434 employed residents.

49% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 97% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 89% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,162$87,005Top 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$732$53,295Top 5%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.4%Bottom 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.8 minTop 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher49.2%Top 3%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment632,434Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.3%Bottom 43%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 46%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force656,056Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation72.0%Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 20%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.6%Bottom 25%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.63.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.6% 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
202120222023202487k73k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $87,005 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.

40% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 46% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
218
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
40.1%
Top 42% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
46.2%
Top 38% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Myers Park High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools3,22520.9
Ardrey Kell High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools3,03620.9
South Mecklenburg High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,53417.8
William Amos Hough HighCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,51821.2
East Mecklenburg High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,42218.6
Palisades High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,33221.4
Julius L. Chambers High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,22519.0
Lake Norman Charter · charterLake Norman Charter2,22217.880%84%
Providence High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,16720.6
Mallard Creek High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,06819.1
Independence High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,02417.6
West Charlotte High SchoolCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools2,00819.7

71.0% 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 $1,627 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,627
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$406,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.68Top 12%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.1%Bottom 4%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±213503,071Top 1%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$14$1,627Top 5%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,752$406,800Top 9%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.4%Top 10%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.3%Bottom 16%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
46/ 100
Ranks 699 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 8% since 2020, reaching 1,206,285 in 2024.

79% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
5,025
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.4
Top 34% nationally
Year over year
−51%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
79.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
202020212022202320241206k1116k
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
20202021202220232024202514k7k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−32%).

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, 7.0 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

54 / 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 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.

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
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
16.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
9.0
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 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 Mecklenburg County rather than Mecklenburg 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT7 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO77 mi10,001 ft
Columbia MetroCAE92 mi8,601 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.