Northwest vs Ocean Isle Beach

A side-by-side comparison of Northwest and Ocean Isle Beach: population, income, housing, and more.

Northwest and Ocean Isle Beach are places in North Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Ocean Isle Beach has the higher population (796 vs 690 in Northwest). Ocean Isle Beach has the higher median household income ($99,231 vs $53,143 in Northwest). Ocean Isle Beach has the higher median home value ($754,300 vs $183,700 in Northwest).

Population, income & housing

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
Population	690	796
Median age	51.9 yrs	67.9 yrs
Median household income	$53,143	$99,231
Median home value	$183,700	$754,300
Median gross rent	$1,006	—
Housing units	376	3,290
Homeownership rate	87.1%	98.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.8%	64.4%
Unemployment rate	7.4%	1.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
Population	856 → 690 (-19.4%)	734 → 796 (+8.4%)
Median household income	$35,469 → $53,143 (+49.8%)	$93,750 → $99,231 (+5.8%)
Median home value	$100,700 → $183,700 (+82.4%)	$520,800 → $754,300 (+44.8%)
Median gross rent	$750 → $1,006 (+34.1%)	$1,000 → $989 (-1.1%)

Northwest

Population

856690

Median household income

$35,469$53,143

Median home value

$100,700$183,700

Median gross rent

$750$1,006

Ocean Isle Beach

Population

734796

Median household income

$93,750$99,231

Median home value

$520,800$754,300

Median gross rent

$1,000$989

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
Under 5	5.2%	0.0%
5 to 17	9.4%	1.9%
18 to 24	10.6%	2.3%
25 to 34	11.0%	0.8%
35 to 44	8.1%	1.6%
45 to 54	14.8%	10.3%
55 to 64	16.7%	23.1%
65 to 74	15.9%	39.4%
75 and over	8.3%	20.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	29.7%	98.1%
Black or African American	65.4%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.1%
Asian	0.0%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.5%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	1.0%	1.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
No high school diploma	7.0%	1.3%
High school graduate	29.7%	10.0%
Some college or associate's	45.5%	24.4%
Bachelor's degree	14.0%	40.0%
Graduate or professional degree	3.9%	24.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
Drove alone	75.3%	58.5%
Carpooled	9.6%	3.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.3%	35.6%
Other means	2.8%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
1-unit, detached	72.9%	69.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	12.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	10.9%
20 or more units	0.0%	3.5%
Mobile home & other	27.1%	1.6%

Poverty & households

	Northwest	Ocean Isle Beach
Poverty rate	17.1%	5.9%
Average household size	2.03	1.80
Mean commute (minutes)	24	22
Median year structure built	1994	1994