Cary vs Holly Springs

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

Cary and Holly Springs 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 43,429 in Holly Springs). Holly Springs has the higher median household income ($132,435 vs $129,399 in Cary). Cary has the higher median home value ($525,200 vs $485,500 in Holly Springs).

Population, income & housing

	Cary	Holly Springs
Population	176,686	43,429
Median age	39.8 yrs	36.3 yrs
Median household income	$129,399	$132,435
Median home value	$525,200	$485,500
Median gross rent	$1,621	$1,858
Housing units	72,634	15,171
Homeownership rate	66.3%	83.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	70.2%	67.7%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	3.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cary	Holly Springs
Population	166,268 → 176,686 (+6.3%)	34,874 → 43,429 (+24.5%)
Median household income	$104,669 → $129,399 (+23.6%)	$112,029 → $132,435 (+18.2%)
Median home value	$356,400 → $525,200 (+47.4%)	$320,900 → $485,500 (+51.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,246 → $1,621 (+30.1%)	$1,416 → $1,858 (+31.2%)

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

Holly Springs

Population

34,87443,429

Median household income

$112,029$132,435

Median home value

$320,900$485,500

Median gross rent

$1,416$1,858

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cary	Holly Springs
Under 5	5.1%	6.8%
5 to 17	19.0%	26.6%
18 to 24	7.2%	4.4%
25 to 34	11.7%	10.7%
35 to 44	15.0%	17.8%
45 to 54	15.5%	16.0%
55 to 64	12.7%	9.3%
65 to 74	8.3%	5.9%
75 and over	5.6%	2.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cary	Holly Springs
White (non-Hispanic)	58.0%	74.2%
Black or African American	7.3%	7.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	20.4%	7.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.8%	1.0%
Two or more races	4.0%	3.7%
Hispanic or Latino	9.3%	5.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cary	Holly Springs
No high school diploma	3.7%	4.3%
High school graduate	8.0%	7.9%
Some college or associate's	18.1%	20.1%
Bachelor's degree	37.4%	41.4%
Graduate or professional degree	32.9%	26.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cary	Holly Springs
Drove alone	59.3%	63.2%
Carpooled	5.2%	3.9%
Public transit	0.4%	0.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.1%
Worked from home	32.4%	30.5%
Other means	1.3%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cary	Holly Springs
1-unit, detached	59.5%	80.2%
1-unit, attached	12.8%	9.5%
2 to 4 units	2.2%	0.1%
5 to 19 units	13.9%	5.2%
20 or more units	10.9%	4.3%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Cary	Holly Springs
Poverty rate	5.3%	4.4%
Average household size	2.59	3.01
Mean commute (minutes)	23	28
Median year structure built	1999	2008