28081Kannapolis, North Carolina

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 28081.

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 39% of 6,210 published ZIP areas60
Schools2664th of 4,422 published ZIP areas44
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 6,685 published ZIP areas85
ClimateTop 40% of 6,789 published ZIP areas72
Physical resilience3790th of 6,709 published ZIP areas51
Access4882nd of 6,791 published ZIP areas85
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 6,742 published ZIP areas60
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.5% and median household income $71,665, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 36% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.8 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.0 times that income.

At a glance

Population
29,075
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$71,665
Top 50% nationally
Density
960/sq mi
30.3 sq mi of land
Median age
39.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Kannapolis
North Carolina
Metro area
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
Nearest major airport
CLT
26 mi · Charlotte/Douglas Intl
Median home value
$285,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 86% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,147$71,665Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,504$36,399Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.3 minTop 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.2%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,789Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.1%Bottom 32%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 46%June 2026
Labor force29,829Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force participation67.3%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$68,900Top 44%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$49,990Bottom 46%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202472k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $71,665 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Kannapolis, NC, the city containing this ZIP code.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
35.7%
Bottom 49% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
37.2%
Bottom 26% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Charles E Boger ElementaryCabarrus County Schools89515.752%49%
Kannapolis Middle School 7/8Kannapolis City Schools78216.624%34%
Fred L Wilson ElementaryKannapolis City Schools41513.837%30%
Shady Brook ElementaryKannapolis City Schools32214.018%32%
North Kannapolis ElementaryKannapolis City Schools29611.435%27%

82.4% 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 $1,173 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,173
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$285,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.98Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.5%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±90112,763Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$58$1,173Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,574$285,100Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.6%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.3%Bottom 43%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 →

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

51 / 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 floodingModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, strong wind, 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. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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 28081 rather than 28081 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 26 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT26 mi10,000 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO58 mi10,001 ft
Asheville RgnlAVL105 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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.

28081 vs Kannapolis

How this ZIP area compares with Kannapolis as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

28081
Kannapolis
Median household income
$71,665
vs
$73,836
Per capita income
$36,399
vs
$37,838
Population density
960/sq mi
vs
1,657/sq mi
Median home value
$285,100
vs
$276,400
Median gross rent
$1,173
vs
$1,319
Homeownership rate
73.5%
vs
65.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.2%
vs
29.7%
Poverty rate
11.1%
vs
12.6%
Median age
39.7
vs
36.9

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.