Cary vs Garner

A side-by-side comparison of Cary and Garner: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Cary has the higher population (176,686 vs 32,543 in Garner). Cary has the higher median household income ($129,399 vs $77,496 in Garner). Cary has the higher median home value ($525,200 vs $320,300 in Garner).

Population, income & housing

	Cary	Garner
Population	176,686	32,543
Median age	39.8 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$129,399	$77,496
Median home value	$525,200	$320,300
Median gross rent	$1,621	$1,452
Housing units	72,634	13,961
Homeownership rate	66.3%	64.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	70.2%	45.8%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	6.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cary	Garner
Population	166,268 → 176,686 (+6.3%)	29,462 → 32,543 (+10.5%)
Median household income	$104,669 → $129,399 (+23.6%)	$65,064 → $77,496 (+19.1%)
Median home value	$356,400 → $525,200 (+47.4%)	$190,000 → $320,300 (+68.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,246 → $1,621 (+30.1%)	$1,122 → $1,452 (+29.4%)

Cary

Population

166,268176,686

Median household income

$104,669$129,399

Median home value

$356,400$525,200

Median gross rent

$1,246$1,621

Garner

Population

29,46232,543

Median household income

$65,064$77,496

Median home value

$190,000$320,300

Median gross rent

$1,122$1,452

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cary	Garner
Under 5	5.1%	5.7%
5 to 17	19.0%	15.4%
18 to 24	7.2%	8.5%
25 to 34	11.7%	16.3%
35 to 44	15.0%	14.0%
45 to 54	15.5%	12.8%
55 to 64	12.7%	11.6%
65 to 74	8.3%	8.8%
75 and over	5.6%	6.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cary	Garner
White (non-Hispanic)	58.0%	55.2%
Black or African American	7.3%	25.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.5%
Asian	20.4%	1.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.0%	4.2%
Hispanic or Latino	9.3%	11.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cary	Garner
No high school diploma	3.7%	5.3%
High school graduate	8.0%	19.8%
Some college or associate's	18.1%	29.1%
Bachelor's degree	37.4%	28.3%
Graduate or professional degree	32.9%	17.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cary	Garner
Drove alone	59.3%	71.2%
Carpooled	5.2%	6.5%
Public transit	0.4%	0.1%
Walked	1.2%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.1%
Worked from home	32.4%	19.6%
Other means	1.3%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cary	Garner
1-unit, detached	59.5%	65.9%
1-unit, attached	12.8%	4.2%
2 to 4 units	2.2%	3.8%
5 to 19 units	13.9%	13.2%
20 or more units	10.9%	11.9%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Cary	Garner
Poverty rate	5.3%	7.3%
Average household size	2.59	2.49
Mean commute (minutes)	23	27
Median year structure built	1999	2000