ZIP code 28303

ZIP 28303 is a small city in Cumberland County, North Carolina, with 30,220 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #120 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 86% of them. The median age here is 34.4 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 ZIP 28303 earn a median of $53,261 a year, 32.2% below 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 18.7% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28303 is valued at $174,900, 42.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,125 a month, 20% below the national figure, or roughly $13,500 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.3% 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 3.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 45.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

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 28303 is tabulated inside Cumberland County, North Carolina, one of 17 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 28303 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28303 reports a median household income of $53,261, 16% below the $63,384 county median, and 15% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $174,900, 11% below the county figure and 14% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,125 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 28303 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 28303 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.