Banner Elk vs Sugar Mountain

A side-by-side comparison of Banner Elk and Sugar Mountain: population, income, housing, and more.

Banner Elk and Sugar Mountain are places in North Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Banner Elk has the higher population (1,338 vs 503 in Sugar Mountain). Sugar Mountain has the higher median household income ($110,000 vs $67,917 in Banner Elk). Banner Elk has the higher median home value ($422,900 vs $312,200 in Sugar Mountain).

Population, income & housing

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
Population	1,338	503
Median age	20.7 yrs	59.8 yrs
Median household income	$67,917	$110,000
Median home value	$422,900	$312,200
Median gross rent	$879	$1,650
Housing units	788	1,679
Homeownership rate	62.8%	84.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	44.8%	58.9%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
Population	1,332 → 1,338 (+0.5%)	443 → 503 (+13.5%)
Median household income	$55,781 → $67,917 (+21.8%)	$78,523 → $110,000 (+40.1%)
Median home value	$311,600 → $422,900 (+35.7%)	$232,300 → $312,200 (+34.4%)
Median gross rent	$813 → $879 (+8.1%)	$963 → $1,650 (+71.3%)

Banner Elk

Population

1,3321,338

Median household income

$55,781$67,917

Median home value

$311,600$422,900

Median gross rent

$813$879

Sugar Mountain

Population

443503

Median household income

$78,523$110,000

Median home value

$232,300$312,200

Median gross rent

$963$1,650

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
Under 5	0.6%	1.0%
5 to 17	5.9%	9.5%
18 to 24	54.1%	5.4%
25 to 34	7.4%	8.0%
35 to 44	6.5%	8.3%
45 to 54	4.9%	11.7%
55 to 64	5.1%	16.5%
65 to 74	10.3%	24.9%
75 and over	5.2%	14.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
White (non-Hispanic)	81.7%	91.8%
Black or African American	7.7%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.1%	5.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.8%
Two or more races	2.9%	0.8%
Hispanic or Latino	5.6%	0.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
No high school diploma	0.9%	0.5%
High school graduate	27.1%	23.6%
Some college or associate's	27.1%	17.0%
Bachelor's degree	21.3%	27.9%
Graduate or professional degree	23.5%	31.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
Drove alone	64.5%	57.8%
Carpooled	6.6%	23.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	9.5%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	19.4%	13.9%
Other means	0.0%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
1-unit, detached	47.0%	26.4%
1-unit, attached	3.2%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	39.5%	21.5%
5 to 19 units	8.9%	25.4%
20 or more units	0.0%	26.1%
Mobile home & other	1.5%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Banner Elk	Sugar Mountain
Poverty rate	16.0%	6.8%
Average household size	1.80	1.93
Mean commute (minutes)	12	18
Median year structure built	1997	1985