City · Sampson County, North Carolina

Clinton, North Carolina

Clinton is a city in Sampson County, North Carolina. It has 8,304 residents. Clinton, North Carolina has a quality-of-life score of 14 out of 100 (very low), ranking #13,456 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within North Carolina it ranks #393 of 458 cities and towns. It ranks best on rent-burdened households (low), job growth (high) and social associations (high). It ranks worst on dental care shortage (high), broadband subscriptions (low) and mental health care shortage (high).

14Very low

Quality-of-life score: #13,456 of 15,651 cities and towns
North Carolina: #393 of 458 in NC
Population: 8,304 (2020-2024)
Land area: 8 mi²
Density: 1,079.3 /mi²
FIPS code: 3713240

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety23#12,020/15,637
Economy13#13,564/15,631
Housing78#3,338/14,977
Health14#13,469/15,609
Healthcare3#15,252/15,650
Environment30#10,766/15,453
Education34#10,264/15,649
Infrastructure15#13,254/15,650
Community51#7,737/15,651
Leisure & amenities15#13,333/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Clinton, North Carolina ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Sampson County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Rent-burdened households · low38.4%
90/100North Carolina 48.9%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070
Job growth · high1.9%
87/100North Carolina 0.8%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataSampson County value
Social associations · high14.1 /10k
87/100North Carolina 11.2 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSampson County value
Rent as share of income · low25.5%
87/100North Carolina 29.5%United States 30.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25071
Average commute time · low19.5 min
83/100North Carolina 25.1 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Comfortable days · high30.3%
79/100North Carolina 30.0%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationSampson County value

Weaknesses

Dental care shortage · high20.0
1/100North Carolina 11.5United States 5.7Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationSampson County value
Broadband subscriptions · low79.3%
2/100North Carolina 90.1%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
Mental health care shortage · high19.0
4/100North Carolina 12.3United States 9.9Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationSampson County value
Drought exposure · high93%
5/100North Carolina 79%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAASampson County value
Traffic deaths · high32.8 /100k
6/100North Carolina 15.0 /100kUnited States 12.3 /100k2020-2024National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationProvisional dataSampson County value
Life expectancy · low71.9 yrs
7/100North Carolina 76.1 yrsUnited States 77.6 yrs2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSampson County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Broadband subscriptionsImproving
62.4% (2015-2019) → 79.3% (2020-2024)
+17 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
53.6% (2015-2019) → 38.4% (2020-2024)
−15 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Median household incomeImproving
$32,359 (2015-2019) → $44,953 (2020-2024)
+39%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Rent as share of incomeImproving
32.0% (2015-2019) → 25.5% (2020-2024)
−6.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
3.8× (2015-2019) → 4.7× (2020-2024)
+24%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Uninsured residents (under 65)Worsening
13.7% (2015-2019) → 16.8% (2020-2024)
+3 pts5 yearsCensus table B27010US 10.8% → 9.8%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Clinton, North Carolina improved on 5 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 8 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved5

Inequality−0.0710.556 → 0.486
Rent burden−15 points53.6% → 38.4%
Rent / income−6.5 points32.0% → 25.5%
Broadband+17 points62.4% → 79.3%
Household income+39%$32,359 → $44,953

Declined1

Price / income+0.9×3.8× → 4.7×

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Clinton, North Carolina between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	19.0 min2015-2019	19.5 min2020-2024	+0.5 min	Within the margin of error	41%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.6%2015-2019	23.8%2020-2024	+1.2 points	Within the margin of error	36%
Broadband subscriptions	62.4%2015-2019	79.3%2020-2024	+17 points	Improved	85%
Child poverty rate	38.6%2015-2019	37.2%2020-2024	−1.3 points	Within the margin of error	52%
Effective property tax rate	1.18%2015-2019	0.88%2020-2024	−0.3 points	Within the margin of error	74%
High school diploma or higher	82.6%2015-2019	82.5%2020-2024	−0.1 points	Within the margin of error	32%
Home price to income ratio	3.8×2015-2019	4.7×2020-2024	+0.9×	Declined	25%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.5562015-2019	0.4862020-2024	−0.071	Improved	91%
Median household income	$32,3592015-2019	$44,9532020-2024	+39%	Improved	72%
Poverty rate	26.2%2015-2019	23.6%2020-2024	−2.7 points	Within the margin of error	67%
Rent as share of income	32.0%2015-2019	25.5%2020-2024	−6.5 points	Improved	87%
Rent-burdened households	53.6%2015-2019	38.4%2020-2024	−15 points	Improved	89%
Unemployment rate	6.9%2015-2019	4.9%2020-2024	−2 points	Within the margin of error	81%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	13.7%2015-2019	16.8%2020-2024	+3 points	Within the margin of error	19%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Clinton, North Carolina five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Clinton, North Carolina in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Clinton, North Carolina itself moved +10.5 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

8,304 residents (±29)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

2,987 households (±223)

Clinton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Under $25k30%895
$25k–50k24%716
$50k–75k15%447

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

2,987 households (±223)

Clinton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Own49%1,452
Rent51%1,535

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

2,939 workers (±241)

Clinton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Drive alone81%2,379
Carpool7.9%†233
Public transit0.8%†

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Sampson County, the county holding most of Clinton's residents.

Sampson County has 1,014 employer establishments, 169 for every 10,000 residents (0.68× the US rate of 248; 0.71× North Carolina's), with 12,611 paid employees at an average annual pay of $48,176. The Census Bureau also counts 4,441 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,014; 4,441 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 169; US 248 · North Carolina 237
Paid employees: 12,611
Average annual pay: $48,176; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Sampson County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	85	14.2	0.92×About typical	419	$46,520	493
Religious organizations	81	13.5	2.43×More than typical	427	$21,948	—
Restaurants and other eating places	78	13	0.71×Fewer than typical	1,157	$17,332	18
Ambulatory health care services	70	11.7	0.56×Fewer than typical	860	$52,679	121
Truck transportation	41	6.8	1.35×More than typical	151	$49,338	281
Limited-service restaurants	38	6.3	0.79×Fewer than typical	626	$17,762	7
Full-service restaurants	36	6	0.78×Fewer than typical	476	$17,454	6
Gasoline stations	33	5.5	1.70×More than typical	245	$27,159	—
Building equipment contractors	32	5.3	0.89×About typical	122	$43,639	84
Automotive repair and maintenance	28	4.7	0.93×About typical	85	$41,271	137
Child day care services	28	4.7	1.91×More than typical	261	$25,146	109
Construction of buildings	27	4.5	0.60×Fewer than typical	111	$37,577	221

Rank places for an industry Open Sampson County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 59,984 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $11.2K of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Clinton, North Carolina: $1.35 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $11.2K; +406% vs FY2025
Per resident: $1.35; US $1,994
Sole-source: 0.0%; US 30%
Single offer: 5.4%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Federal Aviation Administration$8,86279%
Department of the Army$1,71415%
Federal Acquisition Service$5985.4%

Top recipients

MODULAR CONNECTIONS LLC$8,86279%
BULLDOG INVESTMENTS OF GREENSBORO L.L.C$1,14310%
EAN HOLDINGS, LLC$5985.4%
REP HOLDINGS, INC.$5715.1%

Spending by fiscal year

10.4KFY2017
3.7KFY2018
7.2KFY2019
2.5KFY2020
379.4FY2021
99.2FY2022
494.2FY2023
644.7FY2024

Top industries (NAICS)

Nonresidential building construction · 2362$8,86279%
Special food services · 7223$1,14310%
Automotive equipment rental and leasing · 5321$5985.4%
Remediation and other waste management services · 5629$5715.1%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Clinton, North Carolina, so they do not add up across cities.

Clinton, North Carolina's figures are part of those of Sampson County, NC ($352.1K in FY2026), never added to them: 3.2% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Clinton is mostly in Sampson County.

See federal money in Sampson County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Clinton, North Carolina is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Sampson County18100% of residents

Other cities and towns in Sampson County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/3713240

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends