Granite Falls vs Sawmills

A side-by-side comparison of Granite Falls and Sawmills: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Sawmills has the higher population (5,027 vs 4,921 in Granite Falls). Granite Falls has the higher median household income ($74,250 vs $56,534 in Sawmills). Granite Falls has the higher median home value ($203,100 vs $180,500 in Sawmills).

Population, income & housing

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
Population	4,921	5,027
Median age	42.4 yrs	43.2 yrs
Median household income	$74,250	$56,534
Median home value	$203,100	$180,500
Median gross rent	$845	$719
Housing units	1,793	2,390
Homeownership rate	68.2%	67.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.2%	16.1%
Unemployment rate	1.8%	8.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
Population	4,628 → 4,921 (+6.3%)	5,165 → 5,027 (-2.7%)
Median household income	$62,522 → $74,250 (+18.8%)	$52,951 → $56,534 (+6.8%)
Median home value	$159,900 → $203,100 (+27.0%)	$108,300 → $180,500 (+66.7%)
Median gross rent	$718 → $845 (+17.7%)	$674 → $719 (+6.7%)

Granite Falls

Population

4,6284,921

Median household income

$62,522$74,250

Median home value

$159,900$203,100

Median gross rent

$718$845

Sawmills

Population

5,1655,027

Median household income

$52,951$56,534

Median home value

$108,300$180,500

Median gross rent

$674$719

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
Under 5	8.2%	3.2%
5 to 17	19.4%	16.7%
18 to 24	7.6%	8.4%
25 to 34	9.0%	15.3%
35 to 44	8.6%	8.0%
45 to 54	15.9%	16.8%
55 to 64	9.7%	13.2%
65 to 74	12.7%	11.9%
75 and over	9.0%	6.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
White (non-Hispanic)	74.7%	91.7%
Black or African American	2.6%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.0%
Asian	0.9%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	8.1%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	13.2%	3.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
No high school diploma	10.0%	19.7%
High school graduate	30.3%	33.8%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	30.3%
Bachelor's degree	18.8%	11.4%
Graduate or professional degree	8.4%	4.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
Drove alone	83.0%	84.0%
Carpooled	4.5%	11.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	10.0%	1.2%
Other means	1.7%	3.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
1-unit, detached	65.6%	62.2%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	7.9%	7.9%
5 to 19 units	7.6%	4.7%
20 or more units	2.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	11.2%	25.2%

Poverty & households

	Granite Falls	Sawmills
Poverty rate	15.1%	13.7%
Average household size	2.82	2.56
Mean commute (minutes)	27	22
Median year structure built	1990	1989