GamewellNC
A town of 3,713, settled in 1881.
Is Gamewell a good place to live?
Gamewell gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $215K, 3.4 years of the Hickory metro’s $63K median household income. It grades C− overall, 204th of 286 graded towns in North Carolina. The low prices come with trade-offs. The median household income is $47K, and 22% of residents live below the poverty line, and CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 79% of the country. Gamewell’s average trip to work is 40 minutes, above both the North Carolina town median (24 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. No town among the 290 in North Carolina we compare has a lower share of adults with a bachelor’s degree than Gamewell.
What makes Gamewell stand out
Where Gamewell beats most towns.
98% of working residents leave Gamewell for work
Where Gamewell’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Gamewell grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Gamewell is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Gamewell: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Gamewell, 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 Gamewell.
Gamewell is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has milder winter nights than most of the country, though not than most of North Carolina; it also has little public open land.
Public schools in Gamewell fall behind 56% of North Carolina districts
Its public schools are run by the Caldwell County Schools. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gamewell ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 459 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
Gamewell earns a C− for health
Against the 4,515 U.S. towns with household incomes like Gamewell’s, it is healthier than 58%, so its C− isn’t only a matter of income.
19% of adults smoke cigarettes in Gamewell. Gamewell beats the North Carolina average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 13. 17% of adults report frequent physical distress in Gamewell.
| Gamewell | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 14% | 14% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 13% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 19% | 19% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 25% | 23% |
| What stands out | Gamewell | NC |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 11.1% | 7.1% |
| More smokers | 19% | 13.5% |
| More adults with heart disease | 9.2% | 6.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Gamewell earns an A− for cost of living
The median property tax bill is $797, against $1,896 across North Carolina, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
Gamewell’s median rent is $808 a month. The typical Gamewell home is worth about $215,000, up 2.2% in a year, 35% below the North Carolina typical home. 61% of Gamewell households own their home.
| Gamewell | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $808 a month | $1,086 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 61% | 67% | 73% |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Most of Gamewell’s workers commute out: the town has 0.5 jobs for each of them
The average commute for its 1,556 working residents takes 39.7 minutes, against 25.1 across North Carolina. Jobs based here grew from 404 in 2013 to 844.
Most working residents leave Gamewell for work: only 2% work in town. Since 2013, Gamewell has added 440 jobs, to 844 in 2023. The top destinations are Lenoir (24%), Hickory (10%) and Morganton (5%).
| Gamewell | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $47,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.3% | 6.8% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In Gamewell, expect mild winters and hot summers
January nights average 28.3°: milder than most of the country, but colder than 84% of North Carolina places with climate records; July afternoons average 88.7°.
Gamewell has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. About 4 inches of snow falls in a winter. The January low in Gamewell is 28°F.
| Gamewell | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 28°F | 31°F | 22°F |
| July high | 89°F | 89°F | 85°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Inland flooding leads a high hazard risk in Gamewell
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 60% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
0.4% of Gamewell is conserved land
Just 21 of its 5,166 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Gamewell itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.4 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves.
| Gamewell | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.4% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Gamewell Optimist Park | — | 13 |
| 2. Gamewell Park | — | 9 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Mount Mitchell and 12 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Gamewell. Close and well known come first.
Big draw38 mi MountainMount Mitchell
18 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
21 mi MountainGrandfather Mountain21 mi Theme parkTweetsie Railroad8 mi Ancient siteJoara
18 mi Park & preserveLinville Gorge WildernessPhoto credits
Mount Mitchell: Unknown, Public domain · Blue Ridge Parkway: Ken Thomas, Public domain · Grandfather Mountain: Original uploader was KyleAndMelissa22 at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Linville Gorge Wilderness: No machine-readable author provided. Amcbride~commonswiki assumed (based on copy, Public domain
Everything we know about Gamewell
Colleges nearby
2 within 15 miles of the center of Gamewell
About 3 of every 100 Gamewell residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
About Gamewell
Town in North Carolina, United States
Gamewell is a town in Caldwell County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Gamewell had a population of 3,702. It is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 8.1 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,073 ft
- Area code
- 828
Gamewell’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Gamewell.
Gamewell reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Gamewell with a neighbor →
Questions about Gamewell
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Gamewell, NC a good place to live?
Gamewell grades C− overall, better than 17% of U.S. towns and #204 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades C− for health and C+ for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Gamewell, NC expensive?
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A−.