Cape Charles, VA population, income and ZIP codes

Cape Charles town is a small town in Virginia, with 1,278 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #344 of 688 ranked by population — larger than 50% of them. The median age here is 55.6 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 Cape Charles town earn a median of $51,250 a year, 34.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 38% below the $82,986 median for the 383 Virginia 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 15% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Cape Charles town is valued at $589,000, 94.1% above the national figure and 102% above the $291,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $840 a month, 40.3% below the national figure, or roughly $10,080 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.7% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 11.5×, 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. 60.5% 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.

Home values sit at 11.5× 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 55.6 puts Cape Charles 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.