NorthlakesNC
A town of 1,716.
Is Northlakes a good place to live?
Northlakes’ best subject grades are an A for health and incomes; its weakest is a D for walkability. On incomes, just 22 of North Carolina’s 448 towns do better. Only 28 of North Carolina’s 451 towns score lower on the outdoors. Northlakes has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
100% of working residents leave Northlakes for work
Where Northlakes’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Northlakes grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Northlakes is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Northlakes: who provides what
Northlakes is unincorporated, so Caldwell 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 Northlakes.
Northlakes ranks healthier than 91% of the country’s towns
Northlakes beats the North Carolina average on 13 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 28% of Northlakes adults feel lonely, below both North Carolina’s towns (33%) and U.S. towns (33%). 29% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Northlakes.
| Northlakes | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 34% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 17% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 36% | 35% |
| What stands out | Northlakes | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.3% | 15.2% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 4.1% | 8.1% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.7% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Northlakes stands out in North Carolina and nationally: a smaller share of its residents live below the poverty line
2% of Northlakes residents live below the poverty line, below both the North Carolina town median (13%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). Northlakes’ median household income is $101,000. No town among the 291 in North Carolina we compare has a lower share of working residents who work in town than Northlakes.
| Northlakes | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 2% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $101,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.3% | 6.8% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In Northlakes, expect mild winters and hot summers
Northlakes has mild winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 29° and snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
High risk in Northlakes, with inland flooding at the top
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 61% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Homes in Northlakes sell for about $465K
84% of Northlakes households own their home.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Blue Ridge Parkway and 12 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Northlakes. Close and well known come first.
28 mi ParkwayBlue Ridge Parkway16.5M visitors a year
32 mi LakeLake Norman
34 mi MountainGrandfather Mountain31 mi Theme parkTweetsie Railroad20 mi Ancient siteJoara
32 mi Park & preserveLinville Gorge WildernessPhoto credits
Blue 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
Everything we know about Northlakes
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Northlakes
About 9 of every 100 Northlakes residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
About Northlakes
Census-designated place in North Carolina, United States
Northlakes is a census-designated place (CDP) in Caldwell County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Northlakes had a population of 1,543. It is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.9 sq mi
- Elevation
- 932 ft
Northlakes’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Northlakes.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northlakes | — | — | B− | — | C+ | A |
| Hickory | #200 | C− | C | D | B | B− |
| Granite Falls | #174 | C− | B | C− | C+ | B |
Northlakes has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Northlakes reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Northlakes with a neighbor →
Questions about Northlakes
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Northlakes, NC expensive?
The typical home is worth about $367,000, 10% above 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−.