Laurinburg, North Carolina

Area Profile

15,087 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Laurinburg, in Scotland 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
Opportunity2590th of 3,904 published cities48
Schools2392nd of 2,668 published cities20
Housing affordabilityTop 34% of 4,223 published cities89
Climate2527th of 4,223 published cities68
Physical resilience2548th of 4,182 published cities47
Access4026th of 4,226 published cities54
Economic stability4108th of 4,226 published cities24
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $42,170, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 24% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.6 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.2 times that income.

At a glance

Population
15,087
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$42,170
Bottom 13% nationally
Density
1,202/sq mi
12.5 sq mi of land
Median age
37.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Scotland County
North Carolina
Metro area
Laurinburg, NC
Nearest major airport
MYR
81 mi · Myrtle Beach Intl
Median home value
$134,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 39% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 12,544 employed residents.

Median household income of $42,170 is below 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,423$42,170Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,042$30,789Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate31.1%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.2 minBottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher20.1%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment12,544Bottom 8%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.7%Top 25%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 22%June 2026
Labor force13,155Bottom 8%June 2026
Labor force participation52.2%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 39%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202442k36k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $42,170 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.

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

24% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 30% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.7%
Bottom 10% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
30.1%
Bottom 6% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Scotland High SchoolScotland County Schools1,29415.6
South Johnson ElementaryScotland County Schools65413.927%34%
Spring Hill MiddleScotland County Schools59314.127%32%
Sycamore Lane PrimaryScotland County Schools43513.6
Sycamore Lane ElementaryScotland County Schools34712.912%20%
Scotland Early College HighScotland County Schools23821.6
Shaw AcademyScotland County Schools12211.1

99.3% 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 $774 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$774
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$134,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.18Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate46.6%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2006,476Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$42$774Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,129$134,200Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.0%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.0%Top 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 →

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 15,130 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k15k
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

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 40.2 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAURINBURG MAXTON AP, 6.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation40.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 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

47 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
WildfireModerate
EarthquakeElevated
TornadoModerate
Strong windModerate
Ice stormModerate
HailModerate
LightningModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, inland flooding, drought, 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.

Scotland County records 14.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 24.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 29.1 per 100,000 residents in Scotland County.

Homicide
14.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
24.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
29.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.6
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 Scotland 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 Laurinburg rather than Laurinburg 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 81 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Myrtle Beach IntlMYR81 mi9,503 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU86 mi10,000 ft
Charlotte/Douglas IntlCLT89 mi10,000 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 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
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 Laurinburg

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2835223,837$43,728