Piney Green, North Carolina

Area Profile

14,078 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Piney Green, in Onslow 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
Opportunity2913th of 3,904 published cities45
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 4,223 published cities94
ClimateTop 18% of 4,223 published cities80
Physical resilience4009th of 4,182 published cities10
Access3568th of 4,226 published cities74
Economic stability2208th of 4,226 published cities59
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 3.9% and the Opportunity signal places Piney Green in the bottom 25%.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.2 times that income.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, coastal flooding and lightning.

At a glance

Population
14,078
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$72,177
Top 43% nationally
Density
1,033/sq mi
13.6 sq mi of land
Median age
30.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Onslow County
North Carolina
Metro area
Jacksonville, NC
Nearest major airport
ISO
43 mi · Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld
Median home value
$227,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 68,264 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,136$72,177Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,433$32,641Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.8%Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.7 minTop 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.2%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment68,264Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.3%Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 20%June 2026
Labor force71,007Top 44%June 2026
Labor force participation68.1%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$51,170Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$40,230Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 28%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202472k60k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $72,177 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 — Jacksonville, NC
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons2,040$29,480
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,900$27,330
Cooks, Fast Food1,830$22,900
Cashiers1,630$26,380
Stockers and Order Fillers1,330$33,880
Waiters and Waitresses1,140$28,870

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 Onslow County, NC, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,202 takes 20% 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
20.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,202
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$227,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.15Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.4%Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5345,983Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$90$1,202Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,591$227,600Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.0%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.0%Top 50%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

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 56.5 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEW RIVER MCAF, 6.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation56.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing35°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

10 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
LightningModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

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

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.

Onslow County records 4.0 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 20.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.6 per 100,000 residents in Onslow County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
20.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
23.4
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 Onslow 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 Piney Green rather than Piney Green 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 43 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO43 mi11,498 ft
Wilmington IntlILM48 mi8,016 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU114 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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Other cities in Jacksonville, NC

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
JacksonvilleOnslow County71,27949vs Piney Green

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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

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 Piney Green

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
285444,386$52,354