Rocky Point vs Surf City

A side-by-side comparison of Rocky Point and Surf City: population, income, housing, and more.

Rocky Point and Surf City are places in North Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Surf City has the higher population (4,160 vs 1,045 in Rocky Point). Surf City has the higher median household income ($84,833 vs $52,591 in Rocky Point). Surf City has the higher median home value ($478,600 vs $115,500 in Rocky Point).

Population, income & housing

	Rocky Point	Surf City
Population	1,045	4,160
Median age	40.1 yrs	39.8 yrs
Median household income	$52,591	$84,833
Median home value	$115,500	$478,600
Median gross rent	$681	$1,421
Housing units	465	4,447
Homeownership rate	75.2%	76.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	6.9%	50.8%
Unemployment rate	7.3%	1.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Rocky Point	Surf City
Population	1,687 → 1,045 (-38.1%)	3,449 → 4,160 (+20.6%)
Median household income	$34,196 → $52,591 (+53.8%)	$75,556 → $84,833 (+12.3%)
Median home value	$178,300 → $115,500 (-35.2%)	$275,700 → $478,600 (+73.6%)
Median gross rent	$638 → $681 (+6.7%)	$1,146 → $1,421 (+24.0%)

Rocky Point

Population

1,6871,045

Median household income

$34,196$52,591

Median home value

$178,300$115,500

Median gross rent

$638$681

Surf City

Population

3,4494,160

Median household income

$75,556$84,833

Median home value

$275,700$478,600

Median gross rent

$1,146$1,421

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Rocky Point	Surf City
Under 5	4.9%	3.3%
5 to 17	23.3%	20.2%
18 to 24	8.3%	6.5%
25 to 34	9.6%	9.7%
35 to 44	14.1%	16.1%
45 to 54	17.3%	8.9%
55 to 64	10.3%	16.5%
65 to 74	6.6%	15.2%
75 and over	5.6%	3.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Rocky Point	Surf City
White (non-Hispanic)	47.9%	86.4%
Black or African American	13.2%	4.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	2.2%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.8%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	31.9%	5.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Rocky Point	Surf City
No high school diploma	37.1%	2.4%
High school graduate	23.5%	17.9%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	28.9%
Bachelor's degree	6.9%	29.0%
Graduate or professional degree	0.0%	21.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Rocky Point	Surf City
Drove alone	68.9%	66.1%
Carpooled	18.1%	6.7%
Public transit	12.6%	0.0%
Walked	0.4%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.4%
Worked from home	0.0%	25.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Rocky Point	Surf City
1-unit, detached	58.5%	69.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	4.1%
20 or more units	0.4%	5.3%
Mobile home & other	41.1%	13.2%

Poverty & households

	Rocky Point	Surf City
Poverty rate	37.8%	4.9%
Average household size	2.70	2.52
Mean commute (minutes)	37	23
Median year structure built	1992	2002