Cape CarteretNC
A town of 2,273, settled in 1959.
Is Cape Carteret a good place to live?
The best of Cape Carteret’s subject grades are an A− for health and safety; the weakest is a D− for hazard risk. On hazard risk, just 17 of North Carolina’s 451 towns do worse. On history, just 15 of North Carolina’s 451 towns do worse. Cape Carteret has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Cape Carteret stand out
Where Cape Carteret beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Cape Carteret has grown 18% since 2010
1,917 counted in 2010 and 2,224 in 2020; an estimated 2,273 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Cape Carteret grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Cape Carteret is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Cape Carteret: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Cape Carteret, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Cape Carteret.
Top of a very high hazard risk in Cape Carteret: hurricanes
Since 1996, Cape Carteret has seen 149 flood insurance claims paid out. FEMA expects more storm and flood damage here than in 99% of U.S. communities. Also worth knowing: households in the town have drawn federal disaster aid in 8 declared disasters, most recently in 2019. Expected losses in Cape Carteret break down as 82% from hurricanes and 9% from inland flooding.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Cape Carteret’s schools rank ahead of 70% of North Carolina districts
The Carteret County Public Schools runs its public schools. Its one school is below. Cape Carteret’s only public school teaches 784 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| White Oak ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 784 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
Cape Carteret ranks healthier than four in five of the country’s towns
For adults in Cape Carteret, the share who smoke cigarettes is 11%. Against the North Carolina average, Cape Carteret comes out ahead on 12 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 4. Among adults in the town, 14% report frequent mental distress, against 17% in North Carolina’s towns and 17% across U.S. towns.
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 17% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 34% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 80% | 79% |
| What stands out | Cape Carteret | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.1% | 15.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 6.7% | 12.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.2% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Cape Carteret is safer than four in five U.S. towns, by crime per resident
The violent crime rate for Cape Carteret comes to 0.4 per 1,000 residents. The town’s rate of thefts and burglaries is 3.9 per 1,000 residents, below both the North Carolina town median (21.8) and the median of U.S. towns (9.9).
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.9 per 1,000 residents | 21.8 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.4 per 1,000 residents | 3.2 | 1.6 |
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Zillow puts the typical Cape Carteret home at about $460K
On the market in Cape Carteret: a median 78 days to sell. In Cape Carteret, the going rate for rent is $1,745 a month. Four fifths of Cape Carteret households live in a home they own.
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,745 a month | $1,085 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 80% | 67% | 73% |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Fewer young adults than North Carolina overall
Adults 18 to 34 are just over one in ten residents (23% statewide); people 65 and older are 27% of residents (17% statewide). The share of adults 25 and older in Cape Carteret who hold a bachelor’s degree or more: 38%. Since 2020, Cape Carteret has grown 2%, to 2,273 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. In Cape Carteret, the median age is 46.3 years.
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 46.3 years | 40.1 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 38% | 29% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 20% | 22% | 22% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
54% women, 46% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±6.1 points. Across North Carolina, 51.1% of residents are women.
| Cape Carteret | NC | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.8% | 11.6% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8% | 10.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 3% | 9.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 8.1% | 13.4% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 15.7% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 17.1% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 9.7% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 18.2% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.5% | 6.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7% | 9.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 16.6% | 24.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 30.7% | 19.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7.8% | 10.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 19.8% | 22.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 18.1% | 13.5% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,300, single groups can be off by several points
Expect mild winters and hot summers in Cape Carteret
July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 36° and snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
For most of its workers, the job is outside Cape Carteret
3.9% of working residents work locally in Cape Carteret. Employers in Cape Carteret added 189 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 839. The top destinations are Morehead City (12%), Jacksonville (9%) and Emerald Isle (6%). The town’s typical household income comes in at $86,000.
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 6.1% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 7.4% | 12% | 11% |
| Median household income | $86,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.9% | 6.8% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Cape Carteret has set aside 1.4% of its land for conservation
In 1 park or preserve, walkers have 0.8 miles of trail. One park or preserve covers 10 acres in Cape Carteret. Its concentration of trails stands at 0.3 miles per square mile.
| Cape Carteret | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.4% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Croatan National Forest | — | 10 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Cape Carteret
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Cape Carteret; the nearest are
About 0 of every 100 Cape Carteret residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
About Cape Carteret
Town in North Carolina, United States
Cape Carteret is a town in Carteret County, on the southern coast of North Carolina, United States. It was incorporated in 1959 and had a population of 2,224 as of the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Established
- 1959
- Area
- 2.7 sq mi
- Elevation
- 26 ft
Cape Carteret’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Cape Carteret.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Carteret | — | — | C− | A− | B+ | A− |
| Bogue | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Cedar Point | — | — | C | — | B+ | A− |
| Peletier | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Cape Carteret and Cedar Point have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Cedar Point reports no FBI crime data of its own. Bogue and Peletier aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Cape Carteret with a neighbor →
Questions about Cape Carteret
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Cape Carteret, NC expensive?
Yes. That is 6.4 years of the area's median household income ($72,322 across the Morehead City, NC area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.