Knightdale, North Carolina

Area Profile

20,214 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Knightdale, in Wake County.

73out of 100
Area Score
Top 11% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 2% of 3,904 published cities86
Schools2381st of 2,668 published cities20
GrowthTop 3% of 2,973 published cities82
Housing affordabilityTop 34% of 4,223 published cities89
ClimateTop 43% of 4,223 published cities72
Physical resilienceTop 33% of 4,182 published cities73
AccessTop 49% of 4,226 published cities92
Economic stabilityTop 6% of 4,226 published cities80
The quick read

Knightdale ranks in the top 2% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.1% and median household income of $103,220.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 747 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 34% on the prior year.

A major airport is 17 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
20,214
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$103,220
Top 17% nationally
Density
2,100/sq mi
9.6 sq mi of land
Median age
33.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wake County
North Carolina
Metro area
Raleigh-Cary, NC
Nearest major airport
RDU
17 mi · Raleigh-Durham Intl
Median home value
$380,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 94% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.5% over the past year, to 671,387 employed residents.

49% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$11,333$103,220Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,362$44,817Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.3%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.1 minBottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher48.9%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment671,387Top 9%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.3%Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.5%Top 20%June 2026
Labor force692,545Top 9%June 2026
Labor force participation77.8%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,740Top 42%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,990Top 44%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 6%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024103k72k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $103,220 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 — Raleigh-Cary, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons18,660$33,100
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand17,060$38,470
Cashiers14,350$29,770
Customer Service Representatives13,620$41,900
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,790$29,080
Registered Nurses12,780$84,830

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

23% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.5%
Bottom 6% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
32.6%
Bottom 10% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Knightdale HighWake County Schools1,69516.1
Forestville Road ElementaryWake County Schools57012.417%32%
Knightdale ElementaryWake County Schools54914.134%40%
Hodge Road ElementaryWake County Schools52213.719%30%
Lockhart ElementaryWake County Schools46311.920%27%

84.9% 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 $1,674 takes 19% 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
19.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,674
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$380,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.68Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.7%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4388,025Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$81$1,674Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,701$380,100Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.5%Top 44%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 →
Development Momentum
82/ 100
Top 3% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 grown 12% since 2020, reaching 21,829 in 2024.

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

At 37.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
747
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
37.0
Top 1% nationally
Year over year
+34%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k19k
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
20202022202320242025656128
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+312%).

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 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.1 inches, including 5.2 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 RALEIGH DURHAM INTL AP, 17.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation46.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall5.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing39°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

73 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HailModerate
Inland floodingModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, tornado, lightning, ice storm, earthquake, winter weather, cold wave, wildfire, drought, strong wind.

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.

Wake County records 2.4 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 8.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.6 per 100,000 residents in Wake County.

Homicide
2.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.0
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 Wake 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 Knightdale rather than Knightdale 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 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU17 mi10,000 ft
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO59 mi11,498 ft
Piedmont Triad IntlGSO84 mi10,001 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
73
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Other cities in Raleigh-Cary, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RaleighWake County481,03174vs Knightdale
CaryWake County179,30677vs Knightdale
ApexWake County70,63082vs Knightdale
Wake ForestWake County52,84481vs Knightdale
Holly SpringsWake County45,24879vs Knightdale
Fuquay-VarinaWake County40,48575vs Knightdale
GarnerWake County34,47370vs Knightdale
MorrisvilleWake County31,42283vs Knightdale
ClaytonJohnston County29,32071vs Knightdale
WendellWake County13,06474vs Knightdale
SmithfieldJohnston County12,116vs Knightdale
RolesvilleWake County10,76681vs Knightdale

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)
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 Knightdale

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2754534,163$91,52772