Lenoir vs Sawmills

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

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

Lenoir has the higher population (18,282 vs 5,027 in Sawmills). Sawmills has the higher median household income ($56,534 vs $48,889 in Lenoir). Sawmills has the higher median home value ($180,500 vs $165,200 in Lenoir).

Population, income & housing

	Lenoir	Sawmills
Population	18,282	5,027
Median age	43.5 yrs	43.2 yrs
Median household income	$48,889	$56,534
Median home value	$165,200	$180,500
Median gross rent	$671	$719
Housing units	8,602	2,390
Homeownership rate	61.1%	67.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.6%	16.1%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	8.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lenoir	Sawmills
Population	17,879 → 18,282 (+2.3%)	5,165 → 5,027 (-2.7%)
Median household income	$36,755 → $48,889 (+33.0%)	$52,951 → $56,534 (+6.8%)
Median home value	$111,300 → $165,200 (+48.4%)	$108,300 → $180,500 (+66.7%)
Median gross rent	$626 → $671 (+7.2%)	$674 → $719 (+6.7%)

Lenoir

Population

17,87918,282

Median household income

$36,755$48,889

Median home value

$111,300$165,200

Median gross rent

$626$671

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)

	Lenoir	Sawmills
Under 5	6.0%	3.2%
5 to 17	14.5%	16.7%
18 to 24	9.6%	8.4%
25 to 34	10.7%	15.3%
35 to 44	10.9%	8.0%
45 to 54	13.8%	16.8%
55 to 64	13.4%	13.2%
65 to 74	12.6%	11.9%
75 and over	8.5%	6.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lenoir	Sawmills
White (non-Hispanic)	70.2%	91.7%
Black or African American	12.5%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	13.6%	3.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lenoir	Sawmills
No high school diploma	15.5%	19.7%
High school graduate	30.3%	33.8%
Some college or associate's	33.6%	30.3%
Bachelor's degree	15.8%	11.4%
Graduate or professional degree	4.7%	4.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lenoir	Sawmills
Drove alone	79.7%	84.0%
Carpooled	11.2%	11.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.9%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.7%	1.2%
Other means	1.4%	3.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lenoir	Sawmills
1-unit, detached	66.4%	62.2%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	12.1%	7.9%
5 to 19 units	7.3%	4.7%
20 or more units	5.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	6.9%	25.2%

Poverty & households

	Lenoir	Sawmills
Poverty rate	12.9%	13.7%
Average household size	2.29	2.56
Mean commute (minutes)	24	22
Median year structure built	1973	1989