Highlands is a tiny town located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 901 people and two constituent neighborhoods, Highlands is the 380th largest community in North Carolina.

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Highlands is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Highlands is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Highlands who work in sales jobs (25.40%), office and administrative support jobs (11.31%), and management occupations (7.94%).

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

Highlands 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.

Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Highlands spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 12.01 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.

Highlands is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.

Highlands Information and Demographics

The education level of Highlands citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 38.84% of adults in Highlands have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Highlands in 2000 was $24,120, which is wealthy relative to North Carolina, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $96,480 for a family of four.

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

The most common language spoken in Highlands is English. Some people also speak Spanish.