Cleveland County vs Henderson County

A side-by-side comparison of Cleveland County and Henderson County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Henderson County has the higher population (117,387 vs 100,170 in Cleveland County). Henderson County has the higher median household income ($67,623 vs $55,769 in Cleveland County). Henderson County has the higher median home value ($317,800 vs $180,200 in Cleveland County).

Population, income & housing

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
Population	100,170	117,387
Median age	41.2 yrs	47.2 yrs
Median household income	$55,769	$67,623
Median home value	$180,200	$317,800
Median gross rent	$835	$1,120
Housing units	43,999	57,338
Homeownership rate	70.7%	74.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.1%	35.1%
Unemployment rate	5.7%	3.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
Population	97,282 → 100,170 (+3.0%)	114,913 → 117,387 (+2.2%)
Median household income	$42,247 → $55,769 (+32.0%)	$55,945 → $67,623 (+20.9%)
Median home value	$120,100 → $180,200 (+50.0%)	$214,000 → $317,800 (+48.5%)
Median gross rent	$696 → $835 (+20.0%)	$853 → $1,120 (+31.3%)

Cleveland County

Population

97,282100,170

Median household income

$42,247$55,769

Median home value

$120,100$180,200

Median gross rent

$696$835

Henderson County

Population

114,913117,387

Median household income

$55,945$67,623

Median home value

$214,000$317,800

Median gross rent

$853$1,120

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
Under 5	5.8%	4.6%
5 to 17	16.5%	14.4%
18 to 24	8.6%	6.4%
25 to 34	12.8%	10.4%
35 to 44	10.8%	11.5%
45 to 54	12.6%	12.3%
55 to 64	14.0%	14.4%
65 to 74	11.3%	14.9%
75 and over	7.4%	11.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
White (non-Hispanic)	71.0%	79.9%
Black or African American	18.4%	2.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.3%
Asian	0.9%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.2%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.8%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	4.4%	12.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
No high school diploma	12.5%	8.9%
High school graduate	33.8%	24.6%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	31.4%
Bachelor's degree	13.5%	22.3%
Graduate or professional degree	7.6%	12.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
Drove alone	82.2%	78.8%
Carpooled	8.7%	9.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.1%
Walked	2.0%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	6.2%	9.2%
Other means	0.8%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
1-unit, detached	70.2%	69.4%
1-unit, attached	1.1%	4.1%
2 to 4 units	5.3%	5.1%
5 to 19 units	3.7%	3.8%
20 or more units	1.4%	2.5%
Mobile home & other	18.3%	15.1%

Poverty & households

	Cleveland County	Henderson County
Poverty rate	17.2%	11.7%
Average household size	2.64	2.30
Mean commute (minutes)	25	22
Median year structure built	1979	1989