Cumberland County vs Mecklenburg County

A side-by-side comparison of Cumberland County and Mecklenburg County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Mecklenburg County has the higher population (1,130,906 vs 336,749 in Cumberland County). Mecklenburg County has the higher median household income ($83,765 vs $58,780 in Cumberland County). Mecklenburg County has the higher median home value ($371,200 vs $183,700 in Cumberland County).

Population, income & housing

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
Population	336,749	1,130,906
Median age	31.8 yrs	35.4 yrs
Median household income	$58,780	$83,765
Median home value	$183,700	$371,200
Median gross rent	$1,156	$1,521
Housing units	143,184	491,721
Homeownership rate	53.7%	55.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	27.2%	48.6%
Unemployment rate	7.7%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
Population	332,861 → 336,749 (+1.2%)	1,074,475 → 1,130,906 (+5.3%)
Median household income	$46,875 → $58,780 (+25.4%)	$66,641 → $83,765 (+25.7%)
Median home value	$135,300 → $183,700 (+35.8%)	$238,000 → $371,200 (+56.0%)
Median gross rent	$941 → $1,156 (+22.8%)	$1,146 → $1,521 (+32.7%)

Cumberland County

Population

332,861336,749

Median household income

$46,875$58,780

Median home value

$135,300$183,700

Median gross rent

$941$1,156

Mecklenburg County

Population

1,074,4751,130,906

Median household income

$66,641$83,765

Median home value

$238,000$371,200

Median gross rent

$1,146$1,521

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
Under 5	7.4%	6.4%
5 to 17	17.8%	16.6%
18 to 24	12.6%	9.1%
25 to 34	16.7%	17.1%
35 to 44	12.3%	14.7%
45 to 54	10.1%	13.2%
55 to 64	10.4%	11.1%
65 to 74	7.7%	7.3%
75 and over	5.0%	4.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
White (non-Hispanic)	40.6%	43.9%
Black or African American	36.4%	30.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.0%	0.1%
Asian	2.6%	6.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	0.5%
Two or more races	5.8%	3.8%
Hispanic or Latino	12.4%	15.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
No high school diploma	7.4%	9.2%
High school graduate	26.5%	16.4%
Some college or associate's	39.0%	25.8%
Bachelor's degree	17.4%	31.3%
Graduate or professional degree	9.8%	17.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
Drove alone	76.7%	61.9%
Carpooled	9.8%	7.7%
Public transit	0.4%	1.9%
Walked	5.0%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.2%
Worked from home	6.5%	25.5%
Other means	1.5%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
1-unit, detached	64.6%	55.6%
1-unit, attached	2.4%	8.5%
2 to 4 units	7.0%	3.3%
5 to 19 units	12.7%	15.2%
20 or more units	5.1%	15.8%
Mobile home & other	8.3%	1.5%

Poverty & households

	Cumberland County	Mecklenburg County
Poverty rate	17.2%	10.4%
Average household size	2.49	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	21	25
Median year structure built	1987	1996