Carrboro vs Chapel Hill

A side-by-side comparison of Carrboro and Chapel Hill: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Chapel Hill has the higher population (59,889 vs 21,170 in Carrboro). Carrboro has the higher median household income ($85,927 vs $85,825 in Chapel Hill). Chapel Hill has the higher median home value ($576,500 vs $507,100 in Carrboro).

Population, income & housing

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
Population	21,170	59,889
Median age	34.0 yrs	25.8 yrs
Median household income	$85,927	$85,825
Median home value	$507,100	$576,500
Median gross rent	$1,337	$1,483
Housing units	10,159	23,205
Homeownership rate	43.6%	48.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	70.4%	77.2%
Unemployment rate	3.9%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
Population	21,230 → 21,170 (-0.3%)	60,998 → 59,889 (-1.8%)
Median household income	$58,702 → $85,927 (+46.4%)	$73,614 → $85,825 (+16.6%)
Median home value	$368,800 → $507,100 (+37.5%)	$399,700 → $576,500 (+44.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,078 → $1,337 (+24.0%)	$1,191 → $1,483 (+24.5%)

Carrboro

Population

21,23021,170

Median household income

$58,702$85,927

Median home value

$368,800$507,100

Median gross rent

$1,078$1,337

Chapel Hill

Population

60,99859,889

Median household income

$73,614$85,825

Median home value

$399,700$576,500

Median gross rent

$1,191$1,483

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
Under 5	4.2%	3.4%
5 to 17	17.0%	11.9%
18 to 24	11.5%	32.8%
25 to 34	18.3%	12.6%
35 to 44	14.6%	8.9%
45 to 54	14.2%	9.8%
55 to 64	10.2%	8.1%
65 to 74	5.7%	7.1%
75 and over	4.2%	5.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
White (non-Hispanic)	64.0%	63.8%
Black or African American	12.8%	10.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.5%
Asian	7.9%	13.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.4%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	11.6%	7.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
No high school diploma	5.0%	3.8%
High school graduate	7.1%	7.8%
Some college or associate's	17.5%	11.3%
Bachelor's degree	26.9%	32.0%
Graduate or professional degree	43.5%	45.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
Drove alone	52.5%	48.1%
Carpooled	7.1%	6.8%
Public transit	7.7%	6.6%
Walked	3.0%	7.7%
Bicycle	4.4%	2.6%
Worked from home	23.9%	27.1%
Other means	1.5%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
1-unit, detached	43.5%	41.6%
1-unit, attached	8.7%	12.3%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	8.5%
5 to 19 units	30.1%	18.7%
20 or more units	11.1%	18.2%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	Carrboro	Chapel Hill
Poverty rate	11.3%	19.6%
Average household size	2.24	2.36
Mean commute (minutes)	23	20
Median year structure built	1986	1988