Etowah vs Mills River

A side-by-side comparison of Etowah and Mills River: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Etowah has the higher population (7,765 vs 7,214 in Mills River). Mills River has the higher median household income ($88,359 vs $73,000 in Etowah). Mills River has the higher median home value ($358,500 vs $313,500 in Etowah).

Population, income & housing

	Etowah	Mills River
Population	7,765	7,214
Median age	46.2 yrs	46.6 yrs
Median household income	$73,000	$88,359
Median home value	$313,500	$358,500
Median gross rent	$1,442	$1,611
Housing units	3,678	3,122
Homeownership rate	83.5%	86.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.5%	41.3%
Unemployment rate	1.7%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Etowah	Mills River
Population	7,653 → 7,765 (+1.5%)	7,251 → 7,214 (-0.5%)
Median household income	$56,048 → $73,000 (+30.2%)	$66,667 → $88,359 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$214,700 → $313,500 (+46.0%)	$257,800 → $358,500 (+39.1%)
Median gross rent	$654 → $1,442 (+120.5%)	$956 → $1,611 (+68.5%)

Etowah

Population

7,6537,765

Median household income

$56,048$73,000

Median home value

$214,700$313,500

Median gross rent

$654$1,442

Mills River

Population

7,2517,214

Median household income

$66,667$88,359

Median home value

$257,800$358,500

Median gross rent

$956$1,611

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Etowah	Mills River
Under 5	5.9%	5.0%
5 to 17	13.0%	16.3%
18 to 24	5.8%	6.3%
25 to 34	11.5%	7.0%
35 to 44	12.3%	12.0%
45 to 54	8.1%	14.3%
55 to 64	16.4%	12.8%
65 to 74	16.4%	18.2%
75 and over	10.6%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Etowah	Mills River
White (non-Hispanic)	89.3%	84.0%
Black or African American	1.0%	3.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.5%
Asian	0.3%	4.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	2.1%	0.9%
Two or more races	1.0%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	6.4%	4.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Etowah	Mills River
No high school diploma	7.0%	6.4%
High school graduate	24.7%	23.0%
Some college or associate's	32.8%	29.3%
Bachelor's degree	21.9%	23.8%
Graduate or professional degree	13.6%	17.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Etowah	Mills River
Drove alone	77.5%	79.8%
Carpooled	15.6%	8.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.2%	0.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.3%	9.9%
Other means	0.3%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Etowah	Mills River
1-unit, detached	80.0%	77.9%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	2.1%
2 to 4 units	3.5%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	14.7%	18.4%

Poverty & households

	Etowah	Mills River
Poverty rate	12.8%	2.0%
Average household size	2.46	2.55
Mean commute (minutes)	27	21
Median year structure built	1988	1997