City safety & data profile
Wake ForestNC
Wake Forest, NC is a 38K-resident city in Wake County with a median household income of $123,802.
Wake County, North Carolina. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Wake Forest, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Wake Forest has a population larger than 72% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $474,500.
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 38K
- Population (place)
- Top 28%
- By size
- $123,802
- Median income (place)
- $474,500
- Median home (place)
- 4.5%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Wake Forest
Wake Forest posts a median household income higher than 84% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Top 16%
- by median income, US cities
Where Wake Forest income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$123,802 Top 16% higher than 84% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Charlotte
Charlotte, NC
911,311 residents
- Raleigh
Raleigh, NC
482,295 residents
- Greensboro 285,342
Greensboro, NC
285,342 residents
- Durham 257,636
Durham, NC
257,636 residents
- Winston-Salem 241,218
Winston-Salem, NC
241,218 residents
- Fayetteville 201,963
Fayetteville, NC
201,963 residents
- Cary 159,769
Cary, NC
159,769 residents
- Wilmington 115,933
Wilmington, NC
115,933 residents
- High Point 110,268
High Point, NC
110,268 residents
- Asheville 95,056
Asheville, NC
95,056 residents
What this shows Charlotte is the largest NC city on this list; Weddington leads median income.
Highest median incomes in NC
Median household income among the same 87-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Weddington
Weddington, NC
$190,766 median
- Davidson
Davidson, NC
$166,556 median
- Summerfield
Summerfield, NC
$160,275 median
- Harrisburg
Harrisburg, NC
$148,254 median
- Apex
Apex, NC
$144,135 median
- Holly Springs
Holly Springs, NC
$135,578 median
- Cary
Cary, NC
$134,905 median
- Waxhaw
Waxhaw, NC
$131,894 median
- Morrisville
Morrisville, NC
$125,396 median
- Wake Forest
Wake Forest, NC
$123,802 median
What this shows Weddington posts the highest place-level median income in NC; Charlotte is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Wake Forest, NC beyond the headline numbers
Wake Forest sits inside Wake County, North Carolina, at roughly 35.98°N, -78.51°W. Population 38,199, $123,802 median household income. Median home value $474,500, median rent $1,596. Poverty rate 4.5%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
Hardship is low by national standards: 4.5% of Wake Forest, NC residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.
The median home in Wake Forest costs roughly 3.8 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
28.7% of Wake Forest workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent physical distress departs furthest from its peer median: 9.5% in Wake Forest, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0% of Wake Forest workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Wake Forest 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Wake County): Wake Forest'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 4.5% -64% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 4% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 59.5% |
| Work From Home | 28.7% |
| Public Transit | 0% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Wake Forest?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Wake Forest right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet NC-WAKE-FOREST · Wake Forest
Wake Forest: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Wake Forest; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse North Carolina state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Wake Forest, NC? ▼
What is the median household income in Wake Forest? ▼
What is the median home value in Wake Forest? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Wake Forest? ▼
What is the median age in Wake Forest? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Wake Forest, 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 (4.5% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NC ($123,802 here).
Compare Wake Forest 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Wake Forest'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 Wake Forest 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 Wake Forest 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 (Wake 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.