About Beech Mountain

Beech Mountain is a tiny town located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 351 people and just one neighborhood, Beech Mountain is the 430th largest community in North Carolina.

Beech Mountain is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 86.23% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Beech Mountain is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Beech Mountain who work in sales jobs (19.16%), office and administrative support jobs (14.37%), and management occupations (12.57%).

Of important note, Beech Mountain is also a town of artists. Beech Mountain has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Beech Mountain's character.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 12.50% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Beech Mountain is an extremely popular destination for tourists and seasonal residents. So much of the population is seasonal such that the town's population swells significantly during the vacation season, and drops again when the season ends. Because of this, much of the local economy is centered around tourism; some businesses may be operated only during the high season. During the low season, year-round residents will notice that the city is a substantially quieter place to live.

Beech Mountain is a major retirement destination. In fact, people 65 and over make up 28.49% of the population. For those considering a place to retire, Beech Mountain may be a good choice because much of the town's services and social community are oriented toward the over-65 demographic.

Beech Mountain is very much a car-oriented town. This is because the population of Beech Mountain isn't large enough or dense enough to support an extensive public transit system. It has a lot of rural roads, and the distance between houses can be quite large, which together tends to discourage walking and bicycling to work. 100% of residents commute to work in their own car (and the drive is typically to a job out of town). People also tend to drive out of town for other services as well, such as shopping, doctors appointments, and more.

As is often the case in a small town, Beech Mountain doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.

Beech Mountain Information and Demographics

The education level of Beech Mountain citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 35.64% of adults in Beech Mountain have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Beech Mountain in 2000 was $26,799, which is wealthy relative to North Carolina and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $107,196 for a family of four.

The people who call Beech Mountain home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Beech Mountain is White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Beech Mountain include English, German, Italian, Scotch-Irish, Irish, Swedish, Scottish, Welsh, and French.

The most common language spoken in Beech Mountain is English.