Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,145, settled in 1942.
Kure Beach’s best subject grades are an A for health and an A− for walkability and incomes; its weakest is a D− for hazard risk. 10% of residents are under 18 in Kure Beach, against 22% in North Carolina’s towns and 22% across U.S. towns. Only 7 of North Carolina’s 450 towns score lower on cost of living. Kure Beach has 1 place on the National Register. On civic life, just 13 of North Carolina’s 331 towns do better. Kure Beach has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Kure Beach beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
| Widest gap | Kure Beach | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.7% | 15.2% |
Where Kure Beach’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Kure Beach is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 228 in 1950, 2,191 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1998 and 2 maps from 1970 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Kure Beach. Close and well known come first.
2 mi LandmarkFort Fisher
5 mi GardenOrton Plantation
4 mi MuseumBrunswick Town
34 mi National BattlefieldMoores Creek National Battlefield56K visitors a year16 mi GardenAirlie Gardens
2 mi MuseumFort Fisher Visitor CenterFort Fisher: Eric T. Gunther, CC BY 3.0 · Orton Plantation: AgnosticPreachersKid., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Brunswick Town: Brunswick1726, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Moores Creek National Battlefield: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain · Fort Fisher Visitor Center: TomasVial, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Kure Beach, 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Kure Beach.
The typical Kure Beach home is worth about $751,000, up 0.7% in a year, more than twice the North Carolina typical home. Kure Beach’s median rent is $1,436 a month, where North Carolina’s towns sit at $1,085 a month and U.S. towns at $1,185 a month. 80% of households own their home in Kure Beach.
| Kure Beach | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 80% | 67% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,436 a month | $1,085 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
5.7% of Kure Beach adults worry about having enough food. Kure Beach beats the North Carolina average on 19 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 3. 12% of Kure Beach adults report frequent mental distress.
| Kure Beach | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 17% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 34% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 33% | 33% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 85% | 80% | 79% |
| What stands out | Kure Beach | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.7% | 15.2% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 4.8% | 12.2% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 13.2% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 92% of U.S. communities. Since 1984, 585 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Kure Beach.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents leave Kure Beach for work: only 7% work in town. Kure Beach’s average trip to work is 31 minutes. Jobs based in Kure Beach grew to 335 in 2023, 41 more than in 2013.
| Kure Beach | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.9% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $104,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Kure Beach has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 89°, January nights drop to 37° and snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
0.6 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. The trail density in Kure Beach is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Kure Beach | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 5.7% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Joe Eakes Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Kure Beach; the nearest are
About 8 of every 100 Kure Beach residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
Town in North Carolina, United States
Kure Beach ( KURE-ee) is a town in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States, approximately 15 miles south of Wilmington. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,191 at the 2020 census. It is found on Pleasure Island directly south of the Wilmington Beach annex of Carolina Beach and just north of Fort Fisher. The town is less than 1 square mile (2.6 km2) in area, stretching along about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of coastline along Pleasure Island, and a maximum width of less than 0.5 miles (0.80 km), in most places only a few hundred yard/meters wide.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Kure Beach.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kure Beach | — | — | D | — | B | A |
| Carolina Beach | #151 | C | D | C− | B | A− |
Kure Beach has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Kure Beach reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Kure Beach with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes. That is 9.8 years of the area's median household income ($76,471 across the Wilmington, NC metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
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