28544 — Piney Green, North Carolina
Area Profile
Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 28544.
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 3.9% and the Opportunity signal places 28544 in the bottom 12%.
Rent takes 29% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.7 times that income.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, coastal flooding and lightning.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 71% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.
Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 68,264 employed residents.
Median household income of $52,354 is below 82% of measured US ZIP areas.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$13,394 | $52,354 | Bottom 18%of 31,295 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$3,785 | $24,118 | Bottom 11%of 32,822 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 16.6% | Top 26%of 32,970 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 24.8 min | Bottom 34%of 32,887 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 15.7% | Bottom 27%of 33,193 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 68,264 | Top 43%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -4.3% | Bottom 5%of 6,542 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -1.9% | Bottom 20%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 71,007 | Top 43%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 70.9% | Top 13%of 33,252 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wage | $51,170 | Bottom 1%of 6,072 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wage | $40,230 | Bottom 2%of 6,072 | 2025 OEWS |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.3% | Bottom 30%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.9% | Bottom 29%of 6,544 | June 2026 |
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 2,040 | $29,480 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 1,900 | $27,330 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | 1,830 | $22,900 |
| Cashiers | 1,630 | $26,380 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 1,330 | $33,880 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | 1,140 | $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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Piney Green, NC, the city containing this ZIP code.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Median rent of $1,262 takes 29% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.71 | Bottom 37%of 30,404 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 34.6% | Bottom 4%of 32,910 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±400 | 2,159 | Top 41%of 33,772 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$126 | $1,262 | Top 32%of 26,618 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$32,745 | $141,700 | Bottom 24%of 30,941 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 28.9% | Top 7%of 26,470 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 15.5% | Top 36%of 33,028 | 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.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 56.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 0.6" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 35°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 89°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 35°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, coastal flooding and lightning.
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. 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
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 28544 rather than 28544 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
- Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Taxes and full cost of living
- No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 46 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilmington Intl | ILM | 46 mi | 8,016 ft |
| Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld | ISO | 47 mi | 11,498 ft |
| Myrtle Beach Intl | MYR | 117 mi | 9,503 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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Similar places
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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 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS | Annual (spring release) |
| 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) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, 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.
28544 vs Piney Green
How this ZIP area compares with Piney Green 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.