Wilson, North Carolina

Area Profile

48,370 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Wilson, in Wilson County.

48out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 10% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3828th of 3,904 published cities22
Schools2052nd of 2,668 published cities31
Growth2242nd of 2,973 published cities35
Housing affordability2226th of 4,223 published cities79
ClimateTop 28% of 4,223 published cities75
Physical resilience2328th of 4,182 published cities52
Access3300th of 4,226 published cities80
Economic stability3770th of 4,226 published cities34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.4% and the Opportunity signal places Wilson in the bottom 2%.

In the public schools here, 35% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.5 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 196 units authorized over the past twelve months, 45% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
48,370
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$52,485
Bottom 27% nationally
Density
1,532/sq mi
31.6 sq mi of land
Median age
39.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wilson County
North Carolina
Metro area
Wilson, NC
Nearest major airport
ISO
33 mi · Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings Fld
Median home value
$210,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.4% is lower than 15% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 19,451 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,430$52,485Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,515$31,704Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate23.0%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.3 minBottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.5%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,451Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.1%Bottom 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 14%June 2026
Labor force20,566Bottom 24%June 2026
Labor force participation58.6%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.4%Top 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.04.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.4% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202452k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $52,485 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.

35% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
19
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
34.7%
Bottom 38% in North Carolina
Reading proficiency
36.7%
Bottom 15% in North Carolina
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sallie B Howard School · charterSallie B Howard School1,22815.932%38%
James Hunt HighWilson County Schools1,11518.0
Fike HighWilson County Schools1,02819.0
Wilson Preparatory Academy · charterWilson Preparatory Academy72517.733%46%
Forest Hills MiddleWilson County Schools65418.737%42%
Beddingfield HighWilson County Schools65313.6
John W Jones ElementaryWilson County Schools60117.226%27%
Rock Ridge ElementaryWilson County Schools47617.074%60%
New Hope ElementaryWilson County Schools46015.975%58%
Vinson-Bynum ElementaryWilson County Schools45816.432%35%
Margaret Hearne ElementaryWilson County Schools42316.315%19%
Wells ElementaryWilson County Schools38317.432%31%

95.6% 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 $971 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$971
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$210,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.01Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate49.1%Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±43622,934Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$42$971Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,636$210,700Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.2%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.0%Top 46%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
35/ 100
Ranks 2242 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 48,579 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 4.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
196
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.1
Top 35% nationally
Year over year
−45%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202449k48k
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
20202022202320242025381179
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−12%).

Weather & climate

7 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 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.4 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ROCKY MT WILSON AP, 8.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation44.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 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

52 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
DroughtModerate
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

Wilson County records 10.8 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 24.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.9 per 100,000 residents in Wilson County.

Homicide
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
24.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
27.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.7
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 Wilson 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 Wilson rather than Wilson 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 33 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Kinston Rgnl Jetport At Stallings FldISO33 mi11,498 ft
Raleigh-Durham IntlRDU49 mi10,000 ft
Wilmington IntlILM101 mi8,016 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
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Wilson vs PetersburgWilson vs KankakeeWilson vs HopewellWilson vs Fayetteville

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)
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 Wilson

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2789338,512$42,81045
2789619,455$75,69657