Wilmington, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Wilmington city is a mid-size city in North Carolina, with 118,578 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #8 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 37.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Wilmington city earn a median of $63,900 a year, 18.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 4% above the $61,228 median for the 459 North Carolina cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 16.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Wilmington city is valued at $350,300, 15.5% above the national figure and 59% above the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,311 a month, 6.8% below the national figure, or roughly $15,732 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.6% 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 5.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 46.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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.

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.