HaysNC
A town of 1,053, settled in 1899.
Is Hays a good place to live?
The best of Hays’ subject grades is an A for cost of living; the weakest is a D− for walkability. Hays has 2 places on the National Register. Hays has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Hays stand out
Where Hays beats most towns.
Hays has shrunk 14% from 2010 to 2020
1,851 counted in 2010 and 1,595 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
How Hays grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Hays is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Blue Ridge Parkway and 11 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hays. Close and well known come first.
9 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
40 mi MountainGrandfather Mountain
37 mi MountainMount Rogers30 mi Theme parkTweetsie Railroad
36 mi MountainPilot Mountain
35 mi State parkGrayson Highlands State ParkPhoto credits
Blue Ridge Parkway: Ken Thomas, Public domain · Grandfather Mountain: Original uploader was KyleAndMelissa22 at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Mount Rogers: USDA-FS, Public domain · Pilot Mountain: Berean Hunter, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Grayson Highlands State Park: Ken Thomas, Public domain
Moving to Hays: who provides what
Hays is unincorporated, so Wilkes 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 Hays.
Hays’ typical home value is about $197K
In Hays, 95% of households are owner-occupiers.
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Public schools in Hays beat 67% of North Carolina districts
Its one school is below. Public schools: the Wilkes County Schools. Also worth knowing: 488 students attend Hays’s public school.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain View Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 488 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
Hays has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Half the trips to work are shorter than 16 miles. The share of residents in Hays who live below the poverty line: 4.9%. For most workers, Hays is a place to come home to: only 1% work in town. The top destinations are Wilkesboro (18%), North Wilkesboro (11%) and Winston-Salem (8%).
| Hays | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 4.9% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.1% | 6.8% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The climate in Hays brings four seasons and pleasant summers
Summer afternoons peak near 87° in July, and January nights bottom out around 28°; snowfall runs to about 6 inches a winter. Hays brings chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Moderate risk in Hays, with inland flooding at the top
One declared disaster, in 2024, has brought federal aid to Hays households. Storm and flood damage is expected to run lower than in nearly three fifths of U.S. communities. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 70% come from inland flooding and 8% from cold waves.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Hays ranks healthier than 54% of the country’s towns
Hays: 12% of adults worry about having enough food, below both North Carolina’s towns (15%) and U.S. towns (14%). 27% of adults have been diagnosed with depression here.
| Hays | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 25% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 14% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 15% | 16% |
| What stands out | Hays | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 6% | 8.1% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9.3% | 12.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.6% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Everything we know about Hays
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Hays
About 3 of every 100 Hays residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
1,053 people, and everyone knows the way
In a town this size, neighbors are the best guide. Ask them anything.
About Hays
CDP in North Carolina, United States
Hays is a census-designated place (CDP) in Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,595 at the 2020 census. North Wilkes High School, one of Wilkes County's four public high schools, is located in Hays.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 6.2 sq mi
- Elevation
- 1,348 ft
- ZIP code
- 28635
Questions about Hays
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Hays, 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.