Cary vs Wake Forest

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

Cary 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.

Cary has the higher population (176,686 vs 51,199 in Wake Forest). Cary has the higher median household income ($129,399 vs $120,777 in Wake Forest). Cary has the higher median home value ($525,200 vs $435,000 in Wake Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Cary	Wake Forest
Population	176,686	51,199
Median age	39.8 yrs	38.8 yrs
Median household income	$129,399	$120,777
Median home value	$525,200	$435,000
Median gross rent	$1,621	$1,458
Housing units	72,634	18,824
Homeownership rate	66.3%	74.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	70.2%	57.8%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cary	Wake Forest
Population	166,268 → 176,686 (+6.3%)	42,111 → 51,199 (+21.6%)
Median household income	$104,669 → $129,399 (+23.6%)	$92,210 → $120,777 (+31.0%)
Median home value	$356,400 → $525,200 (+47.4%)	$297,300 → $435,000 (+46.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,246 → $1,621 (+30.1%)	$1,117 → $1,458 (+30.5%)

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

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)

	Cary	Wake Forest
Under 5	5.1%	7.0%
5 to 17	19.0%	20.1%
18 to 24	7.2%	6.5%
25 to 34	11.7%	11.9%
35 to 44	15.0%	15.2%
45 to 54	15.5%	16.3%
55 to 64	12.7%	9.7%
65 to 74	8.3%	7.8%
75 and over	5.6%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cary	Wake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	58.0%	65.6%
Black or African American	7.3%	19.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	20.4%	2.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.0%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	9.3%	7.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cary	Wake Forest
No high school diploma	3.7%	4.2%
High school graduate	8.0%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	18.1%	24.8%
Bachelor's degree	37.4%	35.3%
Graduate or professional degree	32.9%	22.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cary	Wake Forest
Drove alone	59.3%	68.5%
Carpooled	5.2%	4.5%
Public transit	0.4%	0.1%
Walked	1.2%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	32.4%	25.1%
Other means	1.3%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cary	Wake Forest
1-unit, detached	59.5%	68.1%
1-unit, attached	12.8%	10.9%
2 to 4 units	2.2%	3.7%
5 to 19 units	13.9%	8.9%
20 or more units	10.9%	6.7%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	1.7%

Poverty & households

	Cary	Wake Forest
Poverty rate	5.3%	2.9%
Average household size	2.59	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	23	31
Median year structure built	1999	2007