City safety & data profile

ClaytonNC

Clayton, NC is a 19K-resident city in Johnston County with a median household income of $78,822.

Johnston County, North Carolina. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Clayton, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Clayton has a population larger than 42% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $329,600.

Data updated 2026-09-05

19K
Population (place)
Bottom 43%
By size
$78,822
Median income (place)
$329,600
Median home (place)
5.9%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Clayton

Clayton posts a median household income higher than 48% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 49%
by median income, US cities

Where Clayton income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$78,822 Bottom 48% higher than 48% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Clayton $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in NC

Population among 87 NC places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Charlotte is the largest NC city on this list; Weddington leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in NC

Median household income among the same 87-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Weddington posts the highest place-level median income in NC; Charlotte is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Clayton, NC beyond the headline numbers

Clayton sits inside Johnston County, North Carolina, at roughly 35.65°N, -78.46°W. Population 19,304, $78,822 median household income. Median home value $329,600, median rent $1,661. Poverty rate 5.9%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

Hardship is low by national standards: 5.9% of Clayton, NC residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.

A median home in Clayton runs about 4.2 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.

18.2% of Clayton workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Public transit carries 0% of Clayton workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Clayton's median age is 33 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Clayton from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
19,304
Clayton · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$78,822
-12% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$329,600
-20% vs avg
Median Age (place)
33
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Johnston County): Clayton's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
234K+36%
Median Income
$83,384+68%
Median Home Value
$305,600+116%
Poverty Rate
10.6%-38%
Unemployment
3.8%-66%

Economics

Economics indicators for Clayton, NC
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,661/mo
Poverty Rate
5.9% -52% vs avg
Unemployment 2.8%
Bachelor's Degree+ 40.4%
Work From Home 18.2%
Public Transit 0%

Population

White 58.6%
African American 27.7%
Asian 0.7%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
35.6%
Obesity
35.2%
High Blood Pressure
33%
Physical Inactivity
22.2%
Frequent Mental Distress
17.3%
Binge Drinking
15.6%
Current Smoking
13.3%
Frequent Physical Distress
11.9%
Current Asthma
11.1%
Diabetes
10.6%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 63.8%
Annual Checkup 79%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
10.4%
Coronary Heart Disease
5.1%
Stroke
3%

What alerts and safety updates affect Clayton?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Clayton right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet NC-CLAYTON-NC · Clayton

Clayton: 1 tagged alert; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-TRACE 1 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Houston

Tagged alert mix: Clayton

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Clayton.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Clayton; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse North Carolina state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (1 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Clayton, NC?
Clayton, NC has a population of 19,304 people, located in Johnston County, North Carolina.
What is the median household income in Clayton?
The median household income in Clayton, NC is $78,822 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 5.9%.
What is the median home value in Clayton?
The median home value in Clayton, NC is $329,600. Median rent is $1,661/month.
What are the top health concerns in Clayton?
The top health indicators in Clayton include Short Sleep Duration (35.6%), Obesity (35.2%), High Blood Pressure (33%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Clayton?
The median age in Clayton, NC is 33 years. 40.4% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Clayton, both outside North Carolina so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside NC (5.9% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NC ($78,822 here).

Compare Clayton with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Clayton's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Clayton area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Clayton against North Carolina peers on any ranking lens. Explore North Carolina

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Johnston County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.