Jacksonville is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 72,879 people and 28 associated neighborhoods, Jacksonville is the 14th largest community in North Carolina. There's nothing like the smell of a brand new house, and in Jacksonville, you'll find that a large proportion of houses were recently built. New growth in residential real estate is an indication that people are choosing to move to Jacksonville, and putting down their money on brand new construction. Jacksonville’s real estate is, on average, some of the newest in the nation. Jacksonville does seem to be experiencing an influx of affluent people, because the median household income is $54,069.00.
The armed forces are a huge part of the life in Jacksonville, employing 25.93% of the workforce. While it is a military town, the civilian sector still plays an important role in the local economy, where the Accommodation and Retail industries employ 16.32% and 15.81% of the civilian workforce, respectively.
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.76% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
One thing noticeable about Jacksonville, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because Jacksonville is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes Jacksonville a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.
One of the nice things about Jacksonville is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 16.87 minutes getting to work every day.
In terms of college education, Jacksonville is somewhat better educated than the 21.84% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 25.04% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Jacksonville in 2022 was $29,061, which is middle income relative to North Carolina, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $116,244 for a family of four. However, Jacksonville contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Jacksonville is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Jacksonville home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Jacksonville residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Jacksonville also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 18.79% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Jacksonville include German, Irish, English, Italian, and French.
The most common language spoken in Jacksonville is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.