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Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

Wilmington, NC
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Wilmington profile


Living in Wilmington



Wilmington is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 120,324 people and 48 associated neighborhoods, Wilmington is the eighth largest community in North Carolina.

Wilmington real estate is some of the most expensive in North Carolina, although Wilmington house values don't compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.

Also of interest is that Wilmington has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 14.67% 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.

Combining city textures and college town sensibilities, Wilmington really has a nice blend of characteristics. While not a huge city, Wilmington is big enough to offer a healthy dose of diversion, opportunity, and amenity to its residents and to the thousands of college students who descend on it every fall. Its size and diversity makes Wilmington more than just a college town, but removing the students from the equation would undeniably change Wilmington’s character and quality of life.

Not only is Wilmington a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a very large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. That’s because Wilmington is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Wilmington a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

One of the nice things about Wilmington is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

The education level of Wilmington ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Wilmington, 43.62% have at least a bachelor's degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree.

The per capita income in Wilmington in 2022 was $42,750, 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 $171,000 for a family of four. However, Wilmington contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Wilmington is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Wilmington home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Wilmington residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Wilmington include English, German, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.

The most common language spoken in Wilmington is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Other Asian languages.