Apex vs Wake Forest

A side-by-side comparison of Apex and Wake Forest: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Apex has the higher population (67,765 vs 51,199 in Wake Forest). Apex has the higher median household income ($138,442 vs $120,777 in Wake Forest). Apex has the higher median home value ($514,800 vs $435,000 in Wake Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Apex	Wake Forest
Population	67,765	51,199
Median age	36.0 yrs	38.8 yrs
Median household income	$138,442	$120,777
Median home value	$514,800	$435,000
Median gross rent	$1,784	$1,458
Housing units	25,148	18,824
Homeownership rate	75.3%	74.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	66.6%	57.8%
Unemployment rate	3.8%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Apex	Wake Forest
Population	51,370 → 67,765 (+31.9%)	42,111 → 51,199 (+21.6%)
Median household income	$111,435 → $138,442 (+24.2%)	$92,210 → $120,777 (+31.0%)
Median home value	$327,800 → $514,800 (+57.0%)	$297,300 → $435,000 (+46.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,380 → $1,784 (+29.3%)	$1,117 → $1,458 (+30.5%)

Apex

Population

51,37067,765

Median household income

$111,435$138,442

Median home value

$327,800$514,800

Median gross rent

$1,380$1,784

Wake Forest

Population

42,11151,199

Median household income

$92,210$120,777

Median home value

$297,300$435,000

Median gross rent

$1,117$1,458

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Apex	Wake Forest
Under 5	6.2%	7.0%
5 to 17	23.5%	20.1%
18 to 24	5.4%	6.5%
25 to 34	13.4%	11.9%
35 to 44	18.0%	15.2%
45 to 54	15.3%	16.3%
55 to 64	9.8%	9.7%
65 to 74	5.7%	7.8%
75 and over	2.8%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Apex	Wake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	63.3%	65.6%
Black or African American	8.1%	19.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	16.5%	2.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.4%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	7.1%	7.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Apex	Wake Forest
No high school diploma	2.3%	4.2%
High school graduate	9.2%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	21.9%	24.8%
Bachelor's degree	39.0%	35.3%
Graduate or professional degree	27.6%	22.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Apex	Wake Forest
Drove alone	58.5%	68.5%
Carpooled	5.8%	4.5%
Public transit	0.1%	0.1%
Walked	2.1%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	32.5%	25.1%
Other means	1.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Apex	Wake Forest
1-unit, detached	67.6%	68.1%
1-unit, attached	14.8%	10.9%
2 to 4 units	2.7%	3.7%
5 to 19 units	6.4%	8.9%
20 or more units	7.6%	6.7%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	1.7%

Poverty & households

	Apex	Wake Forest
Poverty rate	2.6%	2.9%
Average household size	2.83	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	24	31
Median year structure built	2007	2007