Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Long View gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $185K for a typical one, or 3 years of the Hickory metro’s $63K median household income. It grades B− overall, ranked 81st of 286 in North Carolina. Long View's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 97% of U.S. towns. 7.9% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Long View, below both the North Carolina town median (29%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%). Propst House is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Long View beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Long View is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 243 in 1910, 5,088 in 2020. The archive holds 3 old photos and papers going back to 2021 and 4 maps from 1895 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Long View, 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 Long View.
Long View carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of North Carolina (mostly inland flooding), is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has homes that are cheap against local pay.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 100% of North Carolina towns, with expected losses of about $101 per resident a year; that rating is what its B+ for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Long View is 7 of 100. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Long View since 2020.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Each of its 3 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its B−, Mountain View highest at B.
Its public schools are run by the Hickory City Schools. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest PrimaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–2 | Grades PK–2 | 292 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
At 3 years of the Hickory metro’s $63K median household income, the typical home (about $185K) costs less against local pay than in 88% of North Carolina towns; that ratio is one input to its A− for cost of living.
53% of households own their home in Long View. The typical Long View home is worth about $185,000, about the same as a year ago, 44% below the North Carolina typical home. Long View’s median rent is $794 a month.
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 53% | 67% | 73% |
| Median rent | $794 a month | $1,086 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Against the 4,564 U.S. towns with household incomes like Long View’s, it is healthier than 72%, so its C isn’t only a matter of income.
Long View beats the North Carolina average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 14. 14% of Long View adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 10% | 8.1% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 36% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 14% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 25% | 23% |
| What stands out | Long View | NC |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 19.6% | 13.9% |
| More uninsured adults | 13.8% | 10.4% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 19% | 15.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
July afternoons average 87.9°: hotter than most of the country, but cooler than 80% of North Carolina places with climate records; January nights average 28.9°.
Long View has mild winters and warm summers. Snow is almost unheard of.
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 29°F | 31°F | 22°F |
| July high | 88°F | 89°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave Long View for work: only 3% work in town. Since 2013, Long View has added 177 jobs, to 3,074 in 2023. The top destinations are Hickory (31%), Charlotte (7%) and Conover (4%).
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $47,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.2% | 6.8% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 13% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Long View's reported crime rate is close to North Carolina's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 20 violent crimes were reported in 2022.
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2022) | 3.9 per 1,000 residents | 3.5 | 1.9 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2022) | 24.7 per 1,000 residents | 24.7 | 14.1 |
FBI crime data, 2022 · crimes reported to police
| Long View | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.4% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Long View Recreation Area | — | 13 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Long View. Close and well known come first.
31 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
30 mi LakeLake Norman
36 mi MountainGrandfather Mountain34 mi Theme parkTweetsie Railroad19 mi Ancient siteJoara
32 mi Park & preserveLinville Gorge WildernessBlue Ridge Parkway: Ken Thomas, Public domain · Lake Norman: Prince Grobhelm, CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
3 within 15 miles of the center of Long View
About 1 of every 100 Long View residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
Town in North Carolina, United States
Long View is a town in Burke and Catawba counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, Long View had a population of 5,088. It is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Long View.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long View | #81 | B− | A− | — | B− | C |
| Hickory | #200 | C− | C | D | B | B− |
| Hildebran | — | — | B | — | B | C+ |
| Mountain View | #83 | B− | B+ | — | B | B |
Hildebran has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Long View, Hildebran and Mountain View report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Long View with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Long View grades B− overall, better than 54% of U.S. towns and #81 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades C for health and B− for schools.
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−.
