WelcomeNC
A town of 3,521, settled in 1880.
Is Welcome a good place to live?
Welcome gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $201K for a typical one, or 3 years of the Winston metro’s $66K median household income. It grades B− overall, ranked 88th of 286 in North Carolina. The low prices come with trade-offs. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 76% of the country. On the outdoors, just 41 of North Carolina’s 451 towns do worse. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 81% of U.S. towns. Welcome has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Beulah Church of Christ Cemetery and Waggoner Graveyard.
What makes Welcome stand out
Where Welcome beats most towns.
Every workday, about 3,485 people come to Welcome for work
Where Welcome’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Welcome grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Welcome is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium and 24 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Welcome. Close and well known come first.
16 mi Stadium & arenaAllegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium
13 mi MuseumOld Salem
34 mi Zoo & aquariumNorth Carolina Zoo700K visitors a year
32 mi MountainPilot Mountain
15 mi MuseumReynolda House Museum of American Art
18 mi MuseumNorth Carolina Transportation MuseumPhoto credits
Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium: BobHWS, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Old Salem: David Bjorgen, CC BY-SA 3.0 · North Carolina Zoo: Diane Villa, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pilot Mountain: Berean Hunter, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Reynolda House Museum of American Art: Zsrarticle, CC BY-SA 4.0 · North Carolina Transportation Museum: Unknown, Public domain
Moving to Welcome: who provides what
Welcome is unincorporated, so Davidson 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 Welcome.
Welcome draws workers from Winston-Salem and beyond, has homes that are cheap against local pay and has a longer frost-free season than most of the country, though not than most of North Carolina.
Most working residents commute out of Welcome
3,609 jobs are based in Welcome, 1.9 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Welcome for work: only 7% work in town. Since 2013, Welcome has added 354 jobs, to 3,609 in 2023. Welcome’s median household income is $63,000, against $69,000 in North Carolina’s towns and $80,000 across U.S. towns.
| Welcome | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $63,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 9.3% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Welcome’s schools rank ahead of 54% of North Carolina districts
Its public schools are run by the Davidson County Schools. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is North Davidson High, with 935 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Davidson MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 706 | B+ |
| North Davidson HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 935 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
For health, Welcome earns a C−
18% of Welcome adults smoke cigarettes, where North Carolina’s towns sit at 14% and U.S. towns at 14%. 16% of Welcome adults report frequent physical distress. Welcome beats the North Carolina average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 11.
| Welcome | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 13% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 25% | 23% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 38% | 35% |
| What stands out | Welcome | NC |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 10.4% | 7.1% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 19.5% | 13.9% |
| More smokers | 18.4% | 13.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Mild winters and hot summers in Welcome
The Lexington weather station records that the frost-free season runs about 199 days: longer than most of the country, but shorter than 83% of North Carolina places with climate records. January nights average 28.7°: milder than most of the country, but colder than 78% of North Carolina places with climate records; July afternoons average 88.2°.
Welcome has mild winters and warm summers. About 3 inches of snow falls in a winter. The January low in Welcome is 29°F.
| Welcome | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 29°F | 31°F | 22°F |
| July high | 88°F | 89°F | 85°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Inland flooding leads a moderate hazard risk in Welcome
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 57% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Homes in Welcome sell for about $428K
At 3 years of the Winston metro’s $66K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 88% of North Carolina towns; that ratio is one input to its A− for cost of living.
Welcome’s median rent is $836 a month.
| Welcome | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $836 a month | $1,086 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 77% | 67% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Welcome
Colleges nearby
6 within 15 miles of the center of Welcome
About 5 of every 100 Welcome residents are enrolled in college, about the same as North Carolina.
About Welcome
Census-designated place in North Carolina, United States
Welcome is a census-designated place (CDP) in Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Welcome had a population of 4,131. It is nationally known as the home of Richard Childress Racing. In addition, Walker and Associates, Inc., a nationwide communication value-add distribution is headquartered here. The town motto is "Welcome to Welcome, A Friendly Place," as posted on the welcoming sign. Neighboring communities and municipalities include Midway, Arcadia, and Lexington.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 9.3 sq mi
- Elevation
- 889 ft
- ZIP code
- 27374
Questions about Welcome
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Welcome, NC a good place to live?
Welcome grades B− overall, better than 52% of U.S. towns and #88 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades C− for health and B− for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Welcome, NC expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $201,000, 40% 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 A−.