Columbus, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Columbus town is a small town in North Carolina, with 1,166 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #426 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 45% of them. The median age here is 50.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Columbus town earn a median of $56,083 a year, 28.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 8% below the $61,228 median for the 459 North Carolina cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 15.2% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Columbus town is valued at $210,100, 30.8% below the national figure and 4% below the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,002 a month, 28.7% below the national figure, or roughly $12,024 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 59.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 50.9 puts Columbus town well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.