ZIP 28521 vs ZIP 28518

This side-by-side compares ZIP 28521 (Chinquapin, NC) and ZIP 28518 (Beulaville, NC) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 28521 has a population of 2,287 at 21 people per square mile, while ZIP 28518 has 7,909 at 32 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 28521 reports a median household income of $47,813 against $54,127 in ZIP 28518, with per-capita income of $28,327 vs $25,825. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 17.3% in 28521 and 21.2% in 28518. Poverty rate reads 7.7% vs 16.6%, and unemployment 2.1% vs 5.9% — 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 $128,800 in 28521 versus $159,000 in 28518, with median rent of — and $939 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 97.5% vs 77.7%. 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.