Elk Park vs Sugar Mountain

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

Elk Park 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.

Elk Park has the higher population (694 vs 503 in Sugar Mountain). Sugar Mountain has the higher median household income ($110,000 vs $44,350 in Elk Park). Sugar Mountain has the higher median home value ($312,200 vs $145,000 in Elk Park).

Population, income & housing

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
Population	694	503
Median age	46.1 yrs	59.8 yrs
Median household income	$44,350	$110,000
Median home value	$145,000	$312,200
Median gross rent	—	$1,650
Housing units	363	1,679
Homeownership rate	57.9%	84.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	11.9%	58.9%
Unemployment rate	7.1%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
Population	744 → 694 (-6.7%)	443 → 503 (+13.5%)
Median household income	$40,200 → $44,350 (+10.3%)	$78,523 → $110,000 (+40.1%)
Median home value	$98,500 → $145,000 (+47.2%)	$232,300 → $312,200 (+34.4%)
Median gross rent	—	$963 → $1,650 (+71.3%)

Elk Park

Population

744694

Median household income

$40,200$44,350

Median home value

$98,500$145,000

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)

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
Under 5	6.6%	1.0%
5 to 17	11.5%	9.5%
18 to 24	2.2%	5.4%
25 to 34	22.0%	8.0%
35 to 44	7.5%	8.3%
45 to 54	16.6%	11.7%
55 to 64	16.7%	16.5%
65 to 74	8.9%	24.9%
75 and over	7.9%	14.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
White (non-Hispanic)	94.4%	91.8%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	5.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.8%
Two or more races	1.4%	0.8%
Hispanic or Latino	3.7%	0.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
No high school diploma	17.2%	0.5%
High school graduate	29.8%	23.6%
Some college or associate's	41.0%	17.0%
Bachelor's degree	8.5%	27.9%
Graduate or professional degree	3.4%	31.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
Drove alone	75.3%	57.8%
Carpooled	2.8%	23.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.6%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	18.2%	13.9%
Other means	0.0%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
1-unit, detached	50.7%	26.4%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	16.3%	21.5%
5 to 19 units	0.3%	25.4%
20 or more units	1.4%	26.1%
Mobile home & other	29.8%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Elk Park	Sugar Mountain
Poverty rate	27.4%	6.8%
Average household size	2.16	1.93
Mean commute (minutes)	20	18
Median year structure built	1971	1985