County Wake County, North Carolina - Population, Income & Demographics

The median income of households in Wake County, North Carolina was $101,763. An estimated 3.2% of households had income below $10,000 a year and 19.3% had income of $200,000 or more.

An estimated 84.5% of households received earnings. An estimated 22.1% of households received Social Security and an estimated 21 % of households received retirement income other than Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $25,918. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source.

In 2019-2023, 7.9 % of people were in poverty. An estimated 9% of children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 7.4% of people 65 years old and over. An estimated 7.6% of people 18 to 64 years were below the poverty level.

In 2019-2023, 6.1 % of households received SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). An estimated 54% of households that received SNAP had children under 18, and 33.2% of households that received SNAP had one or more people 60 years and over. An estimated 41.2% of all households receiving SNAP were families with a female householder and no spouse present.

Among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in Wake County, North Carolina in 2019-2023, 91.8% had health insurance coverage and 8.2% did not have health insurance coverage. Private coverage was 78.2% and public coverage was 23.6%, respectively. The percentage of children under the age of 19 with no health insurance coverage was 4.9%.

In 2019-2023, Wake County, North Carolina had a total population of 1,151,009 - 587,331 (51%) females and 563,678 (49%) males. The median age was 37.2 years. An estimated 23.4% of the population was under 18 years, 35.8% was 19 to 44 years, 25.7% was 45 to 64 years, and 12.5 % was 65 years and older.

In 2019-2023, there were 445,636 households in Wake County, North Carolina. The average household size was 2.54 people.

Married-couple households made up 51% of the households in Wake County, North Carolina while cohabiting couple households made up 6.7% of households. Female householders with no spouse or partner present were 26.2% of all households, while 16.1% of households had male householders with no spouse or partner present. Some households had one person, as 11.5% of households were male householders living alone, and 15.2% were female householders living alone, for a total of 26.7% of all households.

In Wake County, North Carolina, 32.9% of all households had one or more people under the age of 18; 22.8% of all households had one or more people 65 years and over.

In 2019-2023, an estimated 85.5% of the people living in Wake County, North Carolina were U.S. natives. 42.1% of the Wake County, North Carolina population were living in the state where they were born.

Approximately 14.5% of Wake County, North Carolina residents in 2019-2023 were foreign-born. 46.6% of foreign-born were naturalized U.S. citizens and an estimated 61.9 % entered the country before the year 2010.

Foreign-born residents of Wake County, North Carolina come from different parts of the world. The bar graph below displays the percentage of foreign-born from each world region of birth in 2019-2023 for Wake County, North Carolina.

Among people at least five years old living in Wake County, North Carolina in 2019-2023, 18.8 % spoke a language other than English at home. Spanish was spoken by 8.5% of people at least five years old; 6.1% reported that they did not speak English "very well."

In 2019-2023, 84.4 % of the people at least one year old living in Wake County, North Carolina were living in the same house one year earlier.

In 2019-2023, 94 % of people 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 56.3% had a bachelor's degree or higher. An estimated 6.1% did not complete high school.

The total school enrollment in Wake County, North Carolina was 298,828 in 2019-2023. Nursery school enrollment was 19,092 and kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment was 197,361. College or graduate school enrollment was 82,375.

In Wake County, North Carolina, among the civilian noninstitutionalized population in 2019-2023, 9 % reported a disability. The likelihood of having a disability varied by age - from 3.5% of people under 18 years old, to 7.3% of people 18 to 64 years old, and to 28.4% of those 65 and over.

In Wake County, North Carolina, 66.9 % of the population 16 and over were employed; 30.1% were not currently in the labor force.

An estimated 82.4% of the people employed were private wage and salary workers; 12.8% were federal, state, or local government workers; and 4.7 % were self-employed in their own (not incorporated) business.

In 2019-2023, the civilian employed population 16 years and older in Wake County, North Carolina worked in the following industries:

An estimated 64.4% of Wake County, North Carolina workers drove to work alone in 2019-2023, and 6.1% carpooled. Among those who commuted to work, it took them on average 25.3 minutes to get to work.

In 2019-2023, Wake County, North Carolina had a total of 481,999 housing units. Of these housing units, 69.6% were single-family houses either not attached to any other structure or attached to one or more structures (commonly referred to as "townhouses" or "row houses"). 27.6% of the housing units were located in multi-unit structures, or those buildings that contained two or more apartments. 2.7% were mobile homes, while any remaining housing units were classified as "other," which included boats, recreational vehicles, vans, etc.

23.7% of the housing inventory was comprised of houses built since 2010, while 1.9% of the houses were first built in 1939 or earlier. The median number of rooms in all housing units in Wake County, North Carolina was 5.9 rooms, and of these housing units 67.2% had three or more bedrooms.

In 2019-2023, Wake County, North Carolina had 445,636 housing units that were occupied or had people living in them, while the remaining 36,363 were vacant. Of the occupied housing units, the percentage of these houses occupied by owners (also known as the homeownership rate) was 64.4% while renters occupied 35.6%. The average household size of owner-occupied houses was 2.71 and in renter-occupied houses it was 2.23.

11.8% of householders of these occupied houses had moved into their house since 2021, while 4.9% moved into their house in 1989 or earlier. Households without a vehicle available for personal use comprised 4.1% and another 21.4% had three or more vehicles available for use.

The following chart provides the primary fuel used to heat houses in Wake County, North Carolina:

In 2019-2023, the median property value for owner-occupied houses in Wake County, North Carolina was $422,800.

Of the owner-occupied households, 74.3 % had a mortgage. 25.7% owned their houses "free and clear," that is without a primary mortgage or loan on the house. The median monthly housing costs for owners with a mortgage was $2,027 and for owners without a mortgage it was $638.

For renter-occupied houses, the median gross rent for Wake County, North Carolina was $1,508. Gross rent includes the monthly contract rent and any monthly payments made for electricity, gas, water and sewer, and any other fuels to heat the house.