28501 — Kinston, North Carolina
Area Profile
Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 28501.
Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places 28501 in the bottom 4%.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, tornado and heat wave.
A major airport is 8 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 22% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.
Employment fell 1.0% over the past year, to 6,865 employed residents.
Median household income of $35,118 is below 96% of measured US ZIP areas.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$3,614 | $35,118 | Bottom 4% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$4,216 | $28,872 | Bottom 23% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 29.4% | Top 7% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 23.9 min | Bottom 29% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 13.3% | Bottom 20% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 6,865 | Bottom 1% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -1.6% | Bottom 25% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -1.0% | Bottom 45% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 7,238 | Bottom 1% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 55.2% | Bottom 32% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.8% | Bottom 10% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 5.2% | Top 22% | June 2026 |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Kinston, NC, the city containing this ZIP code.
Schools
How it’s calculated →15% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 21% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 16.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contentnea-Savannah School | Lenoir County Public Schools | 789 | 14.3 | 28% | 26% |
| Kinston High | Lenoir County Public Schools | 659 | 16.1 | — | — |
| Rochelle Middle | Lenoir County Public Schools | 517 | 20.7 | 8% | 22% |
| Northeast Elementary | Lenoir County Public Schools | 465 | 17.2 | 6% | 12% |
| Southeast Elementary | Lenoir County Public Schools | 326 | 13.6 | 10% | 17% |
98.6% 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 $799 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.2 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.25 | Bottom 22% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 48.4% | Bottom 8% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±428 | 9,852 | Top 17% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$59 | $799 | Bottom 24% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$9,438 | $79,000 | Bottom 5% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 27.3% | Top 9% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 19.9% | Top 27% | 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 91°F and January a low of 35°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 52.3 inches, including 2.0 inches of snow.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 52.3" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 2.0" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 35°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 91°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 37°F | 1991-2020 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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, tornado and heat wave.
Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, inland flooding, hail, drought, ice storm, wildfire, coastal flooding, 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.
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.
- Crime
- The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
- 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 8 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld | ISO | 8 mi | 11,498 ft |
| Wilmington Intl | ILM | 70 mi | 8,016 ft |
| Raleigh-Durham Intl | RDU | 83 mi | 10,000 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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Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory 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.
28501 vs Kinston
How this ZIP area compares with Kinston as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.
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.