Indian Trail, North Carolina

Area Profile

42,036 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Indian Trail, in Union County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 17% of 3,904 published cities73
Housing affordabilityTop 47% of 4,223 published cities82
ClimateTop 26% of 4,223 published cities76
Physical resilience2914th of 4,182 published cities38
Access2278th of 4,226 published cities91
Economic stabilityTop 8% of 4,226 published cities80
The quick read

Indian Trail ranks in the top 17% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.9% and median household income of $108,483.

Rent takes 23% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times that income.

A major airport is 20 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
42,036
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$108,483
Top 15% nationally
Density
1,840/sq mi
22.8 sq mi of land
Median age
36.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Union County
North Carolina
Metro area
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
20 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$385,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.9% is lower than 97% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 23,107 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 85% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,730$108,483Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,401$41,956Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.4%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.2 minTop 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.2%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,107Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 49%June 2026
Labor force23,798Bottom 29%June 2026
Labor force participation76.0%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,900Top 49%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,990Bottom 40%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 24%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.9%Bottom 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.22.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.9% 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
2021202220232024108k89k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $108,483 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.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,077 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
23.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,077
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$385,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.55Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.1%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±48814,576Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$100$2,077Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,606$385,000Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.0%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.4%Bottom 30%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 →

Population has grown 9% since 2020, reaching 43,867 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202444k40k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 37.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, 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 MONROE AP, 4.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation37.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
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

38 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate

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

Union County records 4.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 7.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.3 per 100,000 residents in Union County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.6
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 Union 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 Indian Trail rather than Indian Trail 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 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT20 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO82 mi10,001 ft
Columbia MetroCAE82 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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Other cities in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
CharlotteMecklenburg County903,844vs Indian Trail
ConcordCabarrus County108,719vs Indian Trail
GastoniaGaston County82,884vs Indian Trail
Rock HillYork County75,25970vs Indian Trail
HuntersvilleMecklenburg County63,969vs Indian Trail
KannapolisCabarrus County57,890vs Indian Trail
MooresvilleIredell County52,38168vs Indian Trail
MonroeUnion County36,75962vs Indian Trail
SalisburyRowan County35,825vs Indian Trail
CorneliusMecklenburg County32,783vs Indian Trail
Fort MillYork County30,77584vs Indian Trail
MatthewsMecklenburg County30,577vs Indian Trail

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
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
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.