Surf City vs Topsail Beach

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

Surf City and Topsail Beach 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 444 in Topsail Beach). Topsail Beach has the higher median household income ($90,833 vs $84,833 in Surf City). Topsail Beach has the higher median home value ($630,500 vs $478,600 in Surf City).

Population, income & housing

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
Population	4,160	444
Median age	39.8 yrs	66.2 yrs
Median household income	$84,833	$90,833
Median home value	$478,600	$630,500
Median gross rent	$1,421	$1,250
Housing units	4,447	1,295
Homeownership rate	76.5%	94.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.8%	63.2%
Unemployment rate	1.7%	2.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
Population	3,449 → 4,160 (+20.6%)	409 → 444 (+8.6%)
Median household income	$75,556 → $84,833 (+12.3%)	$78,750 → $90,833 (+15.3%)
Median home value	$275,700 → $478,600 (+73.6%)	$552,300 → $630,500 (+14.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,146 → $1,421 (+24.0%)	$1,063 → $1,250 (+17.6%)

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

Topsail Beach

Population

409444

Median household income

$78,750$90,833

Median home value

$552,300$630,500

Median gross rent

$1,063$1,250

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
Under 5	3.3%	0.5%
5 to 17	20.2%	6.8%
18 to 24	6.5%	0.5%
25 to 34	9.7%	1.8%
35 to 44	16.1%	6.1%
45 to 54	8.9%	9.9%
55 to 64	16.5%	21.6%
65 to 74	15.2%	32.0%
75 and over	3.5%	20.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	86.4%	99.3%
Black or African American	4.4%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.6%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.6%	0.7%
Hispanic or Latino	5.7%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
No high school diploma	2.4%	1.2%
High school graduate	17.9%	8.8%
Some college or associate's	28.9%	26.8%
Bachelor's degree	29.0%	36.6%
Graduate or professional degree	21.8%	26.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
Drove alone	66.1%	56.1%
Carpooled	6.7%	1.3%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	1.7%	1.3%
Bicycle	0.4%	3.2%
Worked from home	25.0%	37.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
1-unit, detached	69.5%	88.0%
1-unit, attached	5.0%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	2.9%	6.2%
5 to 19 units	4.1%	2.8%
20 or more units	5.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	13.2%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Surf City	Topsail Beach
Poverty rate	4.9%	10.6%
Average household size	2.52	1.91
Mean commute (minutes)	23	38
Median year structure built	2002	1986