Havelock, North Carolina

Area Profile

17,691 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Havelock, in Craven County.

45out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3323rd of 3,904 published cities38
Schools1362nd of 2,668 published cities51
Growth2937th of 2,973 published cities8
Housing affordability2504th of 4,223 published cities75
ClimateTop 27% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilience3699th of 4,182 published cities18
Access3734th of 4,226 published cities69
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 4,226 published cities61
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.7% and the Opportunity signal places Havelock in the bottom 15%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 2 units authorized over the past twelve months, 50% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
17,691
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,408
Bottom 36% nationally
Density
1,035/sq mi
17.1 sq mi of land
Median age
24.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Craven County
North Carolina
Metro area
New Bern, NC
Nearest major airport
ISO
50 mi · Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld
Median home value
$207,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.0% over the past year, to 38,358 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,691$58,408Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,904$29,099Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.3%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.1 minBottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.7%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment38,358Bottom 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.5%Bottom 2%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.0%Bottom 8%June 2026
Labor force39,813Bottom 43%June 2026
Labor force participation76.0%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,408 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Craven County, NC, which contains this city.

39% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
39.2%
Top 49% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
48.1%
Top 40% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Havelock HighCraven County Board of Education1,01423.6
Arthur W Edwards ElementaryCraven County Board of Education48915.331%43%
Tucker Creek MiddleCraven County Board of Education47815.952%62%
Roger Bell New Tech AcademyCraven County Board of Education40817.024%30%
W Jesse Gurganus ElementaryCraven County Board of Education34014.271%66%
Havelock MiddleCraven County Board of Education31313.022%47%
Havelock ElementaryCraven County Board of Education24813.143%37%
Graham A Barden ElementaryCraven County Board of Education23714.830%50%
Early College EAST HighCraven County Board of Education20841.6

62.8% 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 $1,280 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
26.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,280
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$207,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.56Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate41.3%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3256,631Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,280Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,074$207,700Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.3%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.5%Bottom 48%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
8/ 100
Ranks 2937 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 17,407 in 2024.

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

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
2
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 9% nationally
Year over year
−50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202418k17k
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
2022202320242025642.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−94%).

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 36°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 57.4 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CHERRY POINT MCAS, 1.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation57.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low36°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 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

18 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
LightningModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Craven County records 9.8 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 17.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.6 per 100,000 residents in Craven County.

Homicide
9.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.5
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 Craven 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 Havelock rather than Havelock 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 50 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO50 mi11,498 ft
Wilmington IntlILM72 mi8,016 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU126 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
45
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Other cities in New Bern, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
New BernCraven County32,73452vs Havelock

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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.

ZIP codes in Havelock

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2853220,908$60,60545
285332,452