Half MoonNC
A town of 7,378.
Is Half Moon a good place to live?
Half Moon gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $182K for a typical one, or 2.7 years of the Jacksonville metro’s $68K median household income. It grades B overall, 73rd of 286 graded towns in North Carolina. The low prices come with trade-offs. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 99% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top. Half Moon’s median age is 28.3 years, where North Carolina’s towns sit at 40.1 years and U.S. towns at 40.5 years. Half Moon has 2 places on the National Register. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 80% of U.S. towns.
What makes Half Moon stand out
Where Half Moon beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
| Widest gap | Half Moon | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 5.1% | 6.6% |
99% of working residents leave Half Moon for work
Where Half Moon’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Half Moon grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Half Moon is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Half Moon: who provides what
Half Moon is unincorporated, so Onslow County and regional agencies provide most services.
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 Half Moon.
Half Moon is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of North Carolina (mostly hurricanes).
Half Moon faces a very high natural-hazard risk, led by hurricanes
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 96% of North Carolina towns, with expected losses of about $388 per resident a year; that rating is what its D− for hazard risk is built on.
Nearly three quarters of Half Moon’s expected losses from natural hazards come from hurricanes, followed by inland flooding at 15%. The national flood insurance program has paid 6 claims locally since 2018. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Half Moon once, in 2016.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
On state tests, Half Moon’s schools beat 54% of North Carolina districts
Its public schools are run by the Onslow County Schools. 482 students attend Half Moon’s public school.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summersill ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 482 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
About two in five of Half Moon’s working residents commute to Jacksonville
Half Moon has 474 jobs for its 2,451 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Just 1% of Half Moon’s working residents have a job in town. This North Carolina town had 474 jobs in 2023, up 223 from 2013. Its average commute comes in at 28 minutes. The top destinations are Jacksonville (39%), Wilmington (3%) and Raleigh (3%).
| Half Moon | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.5% | 6.8% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 7.9% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 9.3% | 12% | 11% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Half Moon is healthier than 71% of U.S. towns
Against the 10,450 U.S. towns with household incomes like Half Moon’s, it is healthier than 89%, so its B+ isn’t only a matter of income.
Just over a fifth of Half Moon adults get no exercise outside work. In Half Moon, 38% of adults sleep under 7 hours, and 33% have high blood pressure.
| Half Moon | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 13% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 34% | 36% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 38% | 35% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 33% | 33% |
| What stands out | Half Moon | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 5.1% | 6.6% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.1% | 13.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Fewer middle-aged adults than North Carolina overall
28% of residents are under 18 in Half Moon. Adults 35 to 64 are 27% of residents (38% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 32% of residents (23% statewide). Among adults 25 and older, 27% have a four-year degree or more, against 36% across North Carolina.
| Half Moon | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 28% | 22% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 13% | 18% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.1 points. Across North Carolina, 51.1% of residents are women.
| Half Moon | NC | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 19% | 11.6% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.2% | 10.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 17.1% | 9.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.5% | 13.4% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.7% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.4% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 5.1% | 12.8% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 6.8% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6% | 6.9% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.6% | 9.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 31.6% | 24.8% | 26% |
| Some college | 25.6% | 19.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.3% | 10.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 16.4% | 22.2% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.6% | 13.5% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Half Moon has mild winters and hot summers
Half Moon’s typical July afternoon high comes in at 89°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Half Moon keeps 0.7% of its land conserved
Just 35 of its 4,709 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Half Moon itself; its outdoors grade is D.
Trails run 0.6 miles in 1 park or preserve. For Half Moon, the concentration of trails is 0.1 miles per square mile. The town has one park or preserve, 2 acres in all.
| Half Moon | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.7% | 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. Hines Farm Park and Stables | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Homes in Half Moon sell for about $336K
At 2.7 years of the Jacksonville metro’s $68K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 93% of North Carolina towns; that ratio is one input to its B+ for cost of living.
A home in Half Moon typically sold within 42 days of listing. For Half Moon, the median rent is $1,210 a month. 40% of the homes sold in Half Moon went for more than their asking price.
| Half Moon | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 76% | 67% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,210 a month | $1,084 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Half Moon
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Half Moon
About 8 of every 100 Half Moon residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
About Half Moon
CDP in North Carolina, United States
Half Moon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Half Moon had a population of 7,543. It is part of the Jacksonville, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 7.4 sq mi
- Elevation
- 30 ft
Half Moon’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Half Moon.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Half Moon | #73 | B | B+ | — | B− | B+ |
| Jacksonville | #170 | C | C | C | B− | A− |
Half Moon reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Half Moon with a neighbor →
Questions about Half Moon
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Half Moon, NC a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Half Moon grades B overall, better than 56% of U.S. towns and #73 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades B+ for health and B− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Half Moon, NC expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $183,000, 45% below the North Carolina typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.