Oriental, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Oriental town is a very small community in North Carolina, with 930 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #473 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 39% of them. The median age here is 68.7 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 Oriental town earn a median of $57,875 a year, 26.3% below the national figure of $78,538 and 5% 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 6.3% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Oriental town is valued at $406,800, 34.1% above the national figure and 85% above the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,106 a month, 21.3% below the national figure, or roughly $13,272 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.9% 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 7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 81.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 7× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. A median age of 68.7 puts Oriental 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.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.