Chapel Hill vs Hillsborough

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

Chapel Hill and Hillsborough 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 9,656 in Hillsborough). Hillsborough has the higher median household income ($98,467 vs $85,825 in Chapel Hill). Chapel Hill has the higher median home value ($576,500 vs $430,100 in Hillsborough).

Population, income & housing

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
Population	59,889	9,656
Median age	25.8 yrs	43.6 yrs
Median household income	$85,825	$98,467
Median home value	$576,500	$430,100
Median gross rent	$1,483	$1,349
Housing units	23,205	4,461
Homeownership rate	48.7%	63.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	77.2%	61.8%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
Population	60,998 → 59,889 (-1.8%)	7,115 → 9,656 (+35.7%)
Median household income	$73,614 → $85,825 (+16.6%)	$64,598 → $98,467 (+52.4%)
Median home value	$399,700 → $576,500 (+44.2%)	$261,200 → $430,100 (+64.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,191 → $1,483 (+24.5%)	$1,025 → $1,349 (+31.6%)

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

Hillsborough

Population

7,1159,656

Median household income

$64,598$98,467

Median home value

$261,200$430,100

Median gross rent

$1,025$1,349

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
Under 5	3.4%	6.1%
5 to 17	11.9%	15.5%
18 to 24	32.8%	4.1%
25 to 34	12.6%	10.6%
35 to 44	8.9%	15.3%
45 to 54	9.8%	15.1%
55 to 64	8.1%	15.5%
65 to 74	7.1%	11.9%
75 and over	5.4%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
White (non-Hispanic)	63.8%	72.3%
Black or African American	10.8%	9.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.2%
Asian	13.1%	2.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.1%	5.6%
Hispanic or Latino	7.4%	9.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
No high school diploma	3.8%	7.8%
High school graduate	7.8%	12.2%
Some college or associate's	11.3%	18.2%
Bachelor's degree	32.0%	31.7%
Graduate or professional degree	45.2%	30.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
Drove alone	48.1%	64.0%
Carpooled	6.8%	4.6%
Public transit	6.6%	0.8%
Walked	7.7%	1.0%
Bicycle	2.6%	0.5%
Worked from home	27.1%	28.3%
Other means	1.1%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
1-unit, detached	41.6%	64.6%
1-unit, attached	12.3%	13.9%
2 to 4 units	8.5%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	18.7%	9.4%
20 or more units	18.2%	9.9%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Chapel Hill	Hillsborough
Poverty rate	19.6%	8.7%
Average household size	2.36	2.22
Mean commute (minutes)	20	21
Median year structure built	1988	1997