Kannapolis, North Carolina

Area Profile

57,890 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Kannapolis, in Cabarrus 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 37% of 3,904 published cities62
Schools2154th of 2,668 published cities27
Housing affordabilityTop 45% of 4,223 published cities84
ClimateTop 39% of 4,223 published cities72
Physical resilience2530th of 4,182 published cities48
Access3011th of 4,226 published cities85
Economic stability2567th of 4,226 published cities55
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $73,836, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 33% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.8 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 3.7 times that income.

At a glance

Population
57,890
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,836
Top 41% nationally
Density
1,657/sq mi
34.9 sq mi of land
Median age
36.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cabarrus County
North Carolina
Metro area
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
25 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$276,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 84% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 28,789 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,039$73,836Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,633$37,838Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.6%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.6 minTop 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.7%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,789Bottom 37%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.1%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 47%June 2026
Labor force29,829Bottom 36%June 2026
Labor force participation67.5%Top 25%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)-0.6%Bottom 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.43.1
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.5% 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
202120222023202474k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,836 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.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 36% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.2%
Bottom 34% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
36.4%
Bottom 13% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
A L Brown HighKannapolis City Schools1,75318.8
Charles E Boger ElementaryCabarrus County Schools89515.752%49%
Concord Lake STEAM Academy · charterConcord Lake STEAM Academy85650.432%47%
Kannapolis Middle School 7/8Kannapolis City Schools78216.624%34%
Royal Oaks ElementaryCabarrus County Schools66115.024%27%
GW Carver ElementaryKannapolis City Schools50314.421%23%
Jackson Park ElementaryKannapolis City Schools47614.450%41%
Forest Park ElementaryKannapolis City Schools47212.831%36%
Fred L Wilson ElementaryKannapolis City Schools41513.837%30%
Shady Brook ElementaryKannapolis City Schools32214.018%32%
North Kannapolis ElementaryKannapolis City Schools29611.435%27%

92.9% 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 $1,319 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,319
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$276,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.74Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.6%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±70825,395Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$67$1,319Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,177$276,400Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.4%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.4%Top 45%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 60,521 in 2024.

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

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202461k55k
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

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.

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, 25.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
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
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 inland flooding, tornado and ice storm.

Ice stormElevated
Inland floodingElevated
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HurricaneModerate

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

Cabarrus County records 4.2 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 15.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.6 per 100,000 residents in Cabarrus County.

Homicide
4.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.6
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 Cabarrus 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 Kannapolis rather than Kannapolis 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 25 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT25 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO58 mi10,001 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL107 mi8,002 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 Kannapolis
ConcordCabarrus County108,719vs Kannapolis
GastoniaGaston County82,884vs Kannapolis
Rock HillYork County75,25970vs Kannapolis
HuntersvilleMecklenburg County63,969vs Kannapolis
MooresvilleIredell County52,38168vs Kannapolis
Indian TrailUnion County42,036vs Kannapolis
MonroeUnion County36,75962vs Kannapolis
SalisburyRowan County35,825vs Kannapolis
CorneliusMecklenburg County32,783vs Kannapolis
Fort MillYork County30,77584vs Kannapolis
MatthewsMecklenburg County30,577vs Kannapolis

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
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 Kannapolis

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2808129,075$71,665
2808328,095$66,257