Hightsville vs Wrightsville Beach

A side-by-side comparison of Hightsville and Wrightsville Beach: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Wrightsville Beach has the higher population (2,679 vs 707 in Hightsville). Wrightsville Beach has the higher median household income ($167,273 vs $16,289 in Hightsville). Since 2019, Wrightsville Beach's population has grown faster (+4.4% vs -27.6%).

Population, income & housing

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
Population	707	2,679
Median age	41.2 yrs	56.1 yrs
Median household income	$16,289	$167,273
Median home value	—	$1,041,800
Median gross rent	—	$1,892
Housing units	311	2,926
Homeownership rate	80.1%	81.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.8%	71.6%
Unemployment rate	0.0%	1.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
Population	977 → 707 (-27.6%)	2,565 → 2,679 (+4.4%)
Median household income	$14,335 → $16,289 (+13.6%)	$109,013 → $167,273 (+53.4%)
Median home value	$163,500 → $122,500 (-25.1%)	$798,700 → $1,041,800 (+30.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,023 → $1,169 (+14.3%)	$1,655 → $1,892 (+14.3%)

Hightsville

Population

977707

Median household income

$14,335$16,289

Median home value

$163,500$122,500

Median gross rent

$1,023$1,169

Wrightsville Beach

Population

2,5652,679

Median household income

$109,013$167,273

Median home value

$798,700$1,041,800

Median gross rent

$1,655$1,892

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
Under 5	4.1%	3.0%
5 to 17	0.0%	10.0%
18 to 24	10.7%	4.6%
25 to 34	18.8%	8.9%
35 to 44	28.4%	9.3%
45 to 54	18.5%	12.7%
55 to 64	5.4%	20.8%
65 to 74	9.1%	21.1%
75 and over	5.0%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	60.5%	94.3%
Black or African American	24.0%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	7.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.3%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	6.9%	2.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
No high school diploma	18.8%	0.7%
High school graduate	35.9%	11.9%
Some college or associate's	30.6%	15.8%
Bachelor's degree	12.8%	46.3%
Graduate or professional degree	2.0%	25.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
Drove alone	71.4%	69.9%
Carpooled	28.6%	3.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	0.0%	24.8%
Other means	0.0%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
1-unit, detached	74.0%	44.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	9.8%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	19.1%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	14.6%
20 or more units	0.0%	11.6%
Mobile home & other	26.0%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Hightsville	Wrightsville Beach
Poverty rate	35.8%	3.6%
Average household size	1.44	2.06
Mean commute (minutes)	—	17
Median year structure built	1956	1978