Beaufort County vs Stokes County

A side-by-side comparison of Beaufort County and Stokes County: population, income, housing, and more.

Beaufort County and Stokes County are counties in North Carolina. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Stokes County has the higher population (44,889 vs 44,597 in Beaufort County). Stokes County has the higher median household income ($60,039 vs $57,997 in Beaufort County). Stokes County has the higher median home value ($186,800 vs $181,200 in Beaufort County).

Population, income & housing

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
Population	44,597	44,889
Median age	47.1 yrs	47.6 yrs
Median household income	$57,997	$60,039
Median home value	$181,200	$186,800
Median gross rent	$859	$766
Housing units	24,385	21,353
Homeownership rate	70.1%	78.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.6%	18.5%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
Population	47,168 → 44,597 (-5.5%)	45,781 → 44,889 (-1.9%)
Median household income	$45,212 → $57,997 (+28.3%)	$48,054 → $60,039 (+24.9%)
Median home value	$132,800 → $181,200 (+36.4%)	$137,000 → $186,800 (+36.4%)
Median gross rent	$740 → $859 (+16.1%)	$687 → $766 (+11.5%)

Beaufort County

Population

47,16844,597

Median household income

$45,212$57,997

Median home value

$132,800$181,200

Median gross rent

$740$859

Stokes County

Population

45,78144,889

Median household income

$48,054$60,039

Median home value

$137,000$186,800

Median gross rent

$687$766

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
Under 5	4.7%	4.2%
5 to 17	14.7%	14.5%
18 to 24	7.0%	7.3%
25 to 34	9.9%	10.4%
35 to 44	11.1%	10.4%
45 to 54	12.1%	14.7%
55 to 64	15.6%	16.1%
65 to 74	15.1%	12.9%
75 and over	9.8%	9.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
White (non-Hispanic)	66.2%	89.6%
Black or African American	22.7%	3.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	0.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.7%	2.8%
Hispanic or Latino	7.8%	3.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
No high school diploma	11.9%	10.1%
High school graduate	31.7%	38.1%
Some college or associate's	35.8%	33.3%
Bachelor's degree	13.1%	12.3%
Graduate or professional degree	7.5%	6.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
Drove alone	83.5%	84.8%
Carpooled	5.5%	7.5%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	1.0%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.7%	6.5%
Other means	1.1%	0.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
1-unit, detached	65.9%	70.1%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	0.7%
2 to 4 units	4.7%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	1.2%
20 or more units	1.0%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	23.6%	24.3%

Poverty & households

	Beaufort County	Stokes County
Poverty rate	18.0%	12.0%
Average household size	2.31	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	24	30
Median year structure built	1979	1983