ZIP code 28226

ZIP 28226 is a small city in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, with 38,985 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #77 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 91% of them. The median age here is 40.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older 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 ZIP 28226 earn a median of $113,203 a year, 44.1% above the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 4.7% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28226 is valued at $560,100, 84.6% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,477 a month, 5% above the national figure, or roughly $17,724 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 15.7% 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 4.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 67.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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.

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.

ZIP 28226 is tabulated inside Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, one of 34 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 28226 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28226 reports a median household income of $113,203, 27% above the $89,207 county median, and 81% above the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $560,100, 36% above the county figure and 176% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,477 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

North Carolina charges 4.75% statewide, and local governments overlapping 28226 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 28226 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.