Carolina Beach vs Porters Neck

A side-by-side comparison of Carolina Beach and Porters Neck: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Porters Neck has the higher population (7,102 vs 6,665 in Carolina Beach). Porters Neck has the higher median household income ($115,417 vs $88,239 in Carolina Beach). Porters Neck has the higher median home value ($525,100 vs $487,800 in Carolina Beach).

Population, income & housing

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
Population	6,665	7,102
Median age	52.2 yrs	52.0 yrs
Median household income	$88,239	$115,417
Median home value	$487,800	$525,100
Median gross rent	$1,544	$1,591
Housing units	6,006	3,415
Homeownership rate	79.4%	79.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	47.5%	67.5%
Unemployment rate	9.0%	13.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
Population	6,265 → 6,665 (+6.4%)	7,538 → 7,102 (-5.8%)
Median household income	$74,949 → $88,239 (+17.7%)	$90,841 → $115,417 (+27.1%)
Median home value	$353,100 → $487,800 (+38.1%)	$379,200 → $525,100 (+38.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,153 → $1,544 (+33.9%)	$1,167 → $1,591 (+36.3%)

Carolina Beach

Population

6,2656,665

Median household income

$74,949$88,239

Median home value

$353,100$487,800

Median gross rent

$1,153$1,544

Porters Neck

Population

7,5387,102

Median household income

$90,841$115,417

Median home value

$379,200$525,100

Median gross rent

$1,167$1,591

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
Under 5	3.9%	3.9%
5 to 17	10.1%	10.7%
18 to 24	6.7%	5.0%
25 to 34	5.0%	8.6%
35 to 44	16.4%	11.7%
45 to 54	16.1%	11.5%
55 to 64	20.3%	13.0%
65 to 74	16.1%	12.8%
75 and over	5.5%	22.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
White (non-Hispanic)	89.1%	89.4%
Black or African American	0.0%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.7%	6.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.0%	1.0%
Hispanic or Latino	6.1%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
No high school diploma	1.6%	2.6%
High school graduate	24.4%	11.5%
Some college or associate's	26.5%	18.5%
Bachelor's degree	33.4%	37.8%
Graduate or professional degree	14.1%	29.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
Drove alone	73.6%	59.5%
Carpooled	5.2%	5.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.1%	0.0%
Bicycle	2.6%	0.0%
Worked from home	17.5%	33.3%
Other means	0.0%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
1-unit, detached	41.9%	79.7%
1-unit, attached	13.5%	4.5%
2 to 4 units	9.8%	3.3%
5 to 19 units	20.2%	2.7%
20 or more units	12.1%	9.3%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Carolina Beach	Porters Neck
Poverty rate	8.4%	2.3%
Average household size	2.25	2.11
Mean commute (minutes)	24	23
Median year structure built	1988	2003