ZIP code 28697

ZIP 28697 is a mid-size town in Wilkes County, North Carolina, with 13,412 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #257 of 853 ranked by population — larger than 69% of them. The median age here is 42.9 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 28697 earn a median of $55,217 a year, 29.7% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 15.1% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 28697 is valued at $190,700, 37.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $763 a month, 45.7% below the national figure, or roughly $9,156 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.6% 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 3.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 68.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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 28697 is tabulated inside Wilkes County, North Carolina, one of 12 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 853 across North Carolina. This is a mid-sized ZIP that covers a large share of its county's addresses. 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 28697 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 28697 reports a median household income of $55,217, 14% above the $48,422 county median, and 12% below the $62,646 typical NC ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $190,700, 26% above the county figure and 6% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $763 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 28697 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 28697 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.