Morganton vs Salem

A side-by-side comparison of Morganton and Salem: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Morganton has the higher population (17,541 vs 2,035 in Salem). Salem has the higher median household income ($66,653 vs $49,434 in Morganton). Morganton has the higher median home value ($208,300 vs $159,300 in Salem).

Population, income & housing

	Morganton	Salem
Population	17,541	2,035
Median age	38.5 yrs	42.8 yrs
Median household income	$49,434	$66,653
Median home value	$208,300	$159,300
Median gross rent	$909	$772
Housing units	7,328	1,106
Homeownership rate	51.8%	74.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.0%	20.9%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	7.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Morganton	Salem
Population	16,481 → 17,541 (+6.4%)	1,757 → 2,035 (+15.8%)
Median household income	$42,137 → $49,434 (+17.3%)	$49,375 → $66,653 (+35.0%)
Median home value	$160,100 → $208,300 (+30.1%)	$134,900 → $159,300 (+18.1%)
Median gross rent	$685 → $909 (+32.7%)	$622 → $772 (+24.1%)

Morganton

Population

16,48117,541

Median household income

$42,137$49,434

Median home value

$160,100$208,300

Median gross rent

$685$909

Salem

Population

1,7572,035

Median household income

$49,375$66,653

Median home value

$134,900$159,300

Median gross rent

$622$772

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Morganton	Salem
Under 5	7.5%	9.4%
5 to 17	17.7%	10.9%
18 to 24	8.5%	3.8%
25 to 34	13.1%	12.6%
35 to 44	11.2%	14.5%
45 to 54	11.0%	9.6%
55 to 64	10.0%	12.6%
65 to 74	12.3%	17.3%
75 and over	8.6%	9.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Morganton	Salem
White (non-Hispanic)	57.6%	77.4%
Black or African American	13.2%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	2.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	1.6%
Some other race	1.8%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.9%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	23.2%	15.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Morganton	Salem
No high school diploma	23.1%	14.6%
High school graduate	25.5%	27.9%
Some college or associate's	28.4%	36.6%
Bachelor's degree	12.8%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	10.2%	4.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Morganton	Salem
Drove alone	75.9%	75.6%
Carpooled	15.7%	23.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.3%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.8%	0.0%
Other means	1.2%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Morganton	Salem
1-unit, detached	60.1%	73.4%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	15.1%	8.0%
5 to 19 units	12.8%	2.1%
20 or more units	4.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	5.7%	15.5%

Poverty & households

	Morganton	Salem
Poverty rate	29.9%	19.9%
Average household size	2.45	2.21
Mean commute (minutes)	19	19
Median year structure built	1972	1977