Town · Anson County, North Carolina

Polkton, North Carolina

Polkton is a town in Anson County, North Carolina, part of the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro area. It has 2,555 residents. Polkton, North Carolina has a quality-of-life score of 7 out of 100 (very low), ranking #14,534 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within North Carolina it ranks #441 of 458 cities and towns. It ranks best on job growth (high), time spent in the emergency room (low) and social associations (high). It ranks worst on bachelor's degree or higher (low), homicide rate (high) and grocery stores (low).

7Very low

Quality-of-life score: #14,534 of 15,651 cities and towns
North Carolina: #441 of 458 in NC
Population: 2,555 (2020-2024)
Land area: 3 mi²
Density: 836.7 /mi²
FIPS code: 3753140

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.

Safety1#15,480/15,637
Economy23#12,079/15,631
Housing57#6,501/14,977
Health5#14,905/15,609
Healthcare5#14,859/15,650
Environment67#5,109/15,453
Education7#14,479/15,649
Infrastructure21#12,415/15,650
Community28#11,292/15,651
Leisure & amenities0#15,580/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Polkton, North Carolina ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Anson 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

Job growth · high2.9%
93/100North Carolina 0.8%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataAnson County value
Time spent in the emergency room · low118 min
88/100North Carolina 189 minUnited States 170 minOct 2024–Sep 2025Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesAnson County value
Social associations · high13.7 /10k
85/100North Carolina 11.2 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteAnson County value
Comfortable days · high29.8%
77/100North Carolina 30.0%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationAnson County value
Unemployment rate · low2.5%
76/100North Carolina 3.8%United States 4.3%2020-2024U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census table B23025High uncertainty
High ozone days · low0 days
76/100North Carolina 1 daysUnited States 7 days2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyAnson County value

Weaknesses

Bachelor's degree or higher · low2.5%
1/100North Carolina 35.7%United States 35.7%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003High uncertainty
Homicide rate · high20.8 /100k
1/100North Carolina 6.9 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimateProvisional dataAnson County value
Grocery stores · low0.5 /10k
1/100North Carolina 1.8 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsAnson County value
Arts, entertainment and recreation · low0.5 /10k
1/100North Carolina 4.9 /10kUnited States 5.5 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsAnson County value
Violent crime rate · high675 /100k
3/100North Carolina 330 /100kUnited States 328 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationCovers part of the area: some reporting agencies or member counties have no figureAnson County value
Premature death · high15,576 /100k
3/100North Carolina 9,400 /100kUnited States 8,123 /100k2021-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteAnson County value

Trends

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

PopulationFalling
2,921 (2015-2019) → 2,555 (2020-2024)
−13%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Child poverty rateWorsening
5.0% (2015-2019) → 34.5% (2020-2024)
+29 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
66.2% (2015-2019) → 90.5% (2020-2024)
+24 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Poverty rateWorsening
13.5% (2015-2019) → 30.4% (2020-2024)
+17 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 12.3% → 12.1%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
1.9× (2015-2019) → 2.8× (2020-2024)
+44%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Unemployment rateImproving
7.9% (2015-2019) → 2.5% (2020-2024)
−5.3 pts5 yearsCensus table B23025US 3.7% → 4.0%

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, Polkton, North Carolina improved on 1 of 7 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 6 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.

Improved1

Broadband+24 points66.2% → 90.5%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 7 measures

Change of every measure of Polkton, North Carolina between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Broadband subscriptions	66.2%2015-2019	90.5%2020-2024	+24 points	Improved	95%
High school diploma or higher	73.1%2015-2019	78.3%2020-2024	+5.3 points	Within the margin of error	83%
Home price to income ratio	1.9×2015-2019	2.8×2020-2024	+0.8×	Within the margin of error	29%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4132015-2019	0.3862020-2024	−0.027	Within the margin of error	72%
Median household income	$39,8082015-2019	$47,0592020-2024	+18%	Within the margin of error	30%
Public transit commuters	0.0%2015-2019	0.0%2020-2024	0 points	Within the margin of error	60%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	21.4%2015-2019	18.7%2020-2024	−2.7 points	Within the margin of error	74%

“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 Polkton, North Carolina five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Polkton, 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, Polkton, North Carolina itself moved +6.2 points in standing on average over the same 5 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

2,555 residents (±15)

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

440 households (±234)

Polkton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Under $25k29%†129
$25k–50k24%†104
$50k–75k

Homes

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

Owners and renters

440 households (±234)

Polkton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Own47%†205
Rent53%†235

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

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

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

How people get to work

455 workers (±234)

Polkton, North Carolina
North Carolina share

Drive alone79%†361
Carpool16%†73
Public transit

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC

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 Anson County, the county holding most of Polkton's residents.

Anson County has 380 employer establishments, 174 for every 10,000 residents (0.70× the US rate of 248; 0.73× North Carolina's), with 4,477 paid employees at an average annual pay of $43,052. The Census Bureau also counts 1,635 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 380; 1,635 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 174; US 248 · North Carolina 237
Paid employees: 4,477
Average annual pay: $43,052; US $68,342

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

Restaurants and other eating places	32	14.7	0.80×About typical	478	$16,393	10
Religious organizations	30	13.8	2.48×More than typical	78	$14,962	—
Specialty trade contractors	26	11.9	0.77×Fewer than typical	201	$57,109	141
Ambulatory health care services	20	9.2	0.44×Fewer than typical	189	$35,249	65
Limited-service restaurants	19	8.7	1.09×About typical	384	$16,909	4
Building equipment contractors	15	6.9	1.14×About typical	164	$59,415	31
Gasoline stations	15	6.9	2.12×More than typical	90	$27,089	—
Truck transportation	14	6.4	1.27×More than typical	45	$34,467	90
Construction of buildings	12	5.5	0.73×Fewer than typical	19	$50,368	54
Full-service restaurants	10	4.6	0.60×Fewer than typical	70	$12,729	3
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors	10	4.6	1.39×More than typical	153	$60,922	17
Automotive repair and maintenance	9	4.1	0.82×Too few to compare	20	$33,000	40

Rank places for an industry Open Anson County

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

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 21,778 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 $0 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Polkton, North Carolina: $0 per resident (US $1,995).

Obligations: $0
Per resident: $0; US $1,995
Sole-source: —; US 30%
Single offer: —; 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

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

304.1FY2017
2.3KFY2018
1.2KFY2021

What was bought

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 7, 2026, loaded Oct 7, 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 Polkton, North Carolina, so they do not add up across cities.

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

See federal money in Anson 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.

Polkton, North Carolina is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Mark HarrisR-NC-8 · 100% of residentsWith party 99%Missed 0.0%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

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

Anson County9100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC75

Other cities and towns in Anson 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
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
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/3753140

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends