Atlantic Beach vs Cape Carteret

A side-by-side comparison of Atlantic Beach and Cape Carteret: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cape Carteret has the higher population (2,598 vs 1,705 in Atlantic Beach). Cape Carteret has the higher median household income ($75,313 vs $58,056 in Atlantic Beach). Atlantic Beach has the higher median home value ($466,400 vs $347,500 in Cape Carteret).

Population, income & housing

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
Population	1,705	2,598
Median age	60.5 yrs	47.6 yrs
Median household income	$58,056	$75,313
Median home value	$466,400	$347,500
Median gross rent	$995	$1,755
Housing units	5,166	1,284
Homeownership rate	64.7%	80.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	51.7%	31.9%
Unemployment rate	3.2%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
Population	1,747 → 1,705 (-2.4%)	2,403 → 2,598 (+8.1%)
Median household income	$48,289 → $58,056 (+20.2%)	$81,923 → $75,313 (-8.1%)
Median home value	$383,600 → $466,400 (+21.6%)	$261,600 → $347,500 (+32.8%)
Median gross rent	$958 → $995 (+3.9%)	$1,601 → $1,755 (+9.6%)

Atlantic Beach

Population

1,7471,705

Median household income

$48,289$58,056

Median home value

$383,600$466,400

Median gross rent

$958$995

Cape Carteret

Population

2,4032,598

Median household income

$81,923$75,313

Median home value

$261,600$347,500

Median gross rent

$1,601$1,755

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
Under 5	2.2%	3.5%
5 to 17	8.4%	15.7%
18 to 24	2.9%	3.4%
25 to 34	6.9%	7.2%
35 to 44	5.3%	16.4%
45 to 54	13.7%	13.0%
55 to 64	20.1%	12.2%
65 to 74	22.4%	19.7%
75 and over	18.1%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
White (non-Hispanic)	91.8%	93.5%
Black or African American	0.8%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.4%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	6.9%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	3.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
No high school diploma	0.7%	7.9%
High school graduate	21.6%	17.9%
Some college or associate's	26.0%	42.4%
Bachelor's degree	41.6%	19.7%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	12.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
Drove alone	80.3%	86.7%
Carpooled	1.7%	5.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.7%	1.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	16.2%	6.5%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
1-unit, detached	34.4%	95.0%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	11.1%	1.0%
5 to 19 units	14.5%	0.0%
20 or more units	18.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	18.0%	4.0%

Poverty & households

	Atlantic Beach	Cape Carteret
Poverty rate	18.5%	7.3%
Average household size	1.74	2.33
Mean commute (minutes)	24	27
Median year structure built	1982	1994