Elizabeth City, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Elizabeth City city is a mid-size town in North Carolina, with 18,740 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #55 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 93% of them. The median age here is 36.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Elizabeth City city earn a median of $50,947 a year, 35.1% below the national figure of $78,538 and 17% below the $61,228 median for the 459 North Carolina cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 15% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Elizabeth City city is valued at $202,100, 33.4% below the national figure and 8% below the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,111 a month, 21% below the national figure, or roughly $13,332 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 26.2% 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 4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 41% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.