ZIP 27517 vs ZIP 27510

This side-by-side compares ZIP 27517 (Chapel Hill, NC) and ZIP 27510 (Carrboro, NC) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 27517 has a population of 23,346 at 196 people per square mile, while ZIP 27510 has 14,644 at 1,515 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 27517 reports a median household income of $128,683 against $61,837 in ZIP 27510, with per-capita income of $78,220 vs $46,098. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 74.1% in 27517 and 63.0% in 27510. Poverty rate reads 5.6% vs 14.8%, and unemployment 2.5% vs 3.2% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $608,100 in 27517 versus $449,700 in 27510, with median rent of $1,638 and $1,476 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 67.4% vs 27.7%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.