ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 28086

Cleveland County, North Carolina: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.

Data updated 2026-08-24

490
Property rate /100K (county)
28,652
Population (ZIP)
147
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 28086 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 28086 sits within Cleveland County, NC, a county whose reported crime runs below the national average (see the county-level FBI figures below, not a ZIP-specific calculation).

Reported crime here runs well below the national average: 147 violent incidents and 490 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.

ZIP 28086 is the largest ZIP in Cleveland County by population, 28,652 residents (#1 of 12 county ZIPs), across 90.54 square miles (316/sq mi). For a full breakdown of Cleveland County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Cleveland County crime page linked below.

ZIP 28086 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Cleveland County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 28086 Census context

These are ZIP/ZCTA demographic estimates, separate from the county-level FBI proxy above. They describe the local settlement, not a crime rate.

Median household income
$59,020
Median age
42.4 years
Owner-occupied homes
74%
Occupied homes
10,111

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 5-year ZCTA estimates (income, age, and occupied housing tenure).

How useful is the county proxy for ZIP 28086?

Within the participating-agency records for Cleveland County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 58% below and property crime is 71% below. The two submitted measures point in the same direction, but they do not establish complete county coverage or turn the result into a ZIP-level rating for 28086. Both comparisons use the same 2024 county reporting population and FBI-submitted counts, so the two directions are internally comparable for this release, not evidence about a different year.

Within the county, 28086 is one of the most populous ZIPs (#1 of 12). Its 28,652 residents therefore represent a comparatively large share of the local population, but the county total still combines reports from places outside this ZIP.

Cleveland County UCR book ZIP 28086 inherits

ZIP 28086 itself is about 316 people per Census sq mi across 90.5 sq mi (28,652 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 28086's 28,652 residents are about 28.8% of the 2024 county reporting population (99,519), a large postal share of a county-wide rate.

Cleveland County leans on larceny-theft at 41% of reported offenses (mix index 2,797). ZIP 28086 has no separate FBI offense book.

Cleveland County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts -19% vs 2023; property counts -17% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Cleveland County offense mix (2024)

Mix index is HHI × 10,000 on county offense-type shares. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero; still county-agency data, not a ZIP-native FBI table.

Nationwide peers for ZIP 28086

Similar county violent rate (~147/100K)

Similar Census population (~28,652)

County detail: Cleveland County · State atlas: North Carolina

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ZIP population, land area, 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, ACS 5-year estimates) and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10 (county-level crime, attributed via ZIP-to-county crosswalk).

Verify with Census.gov Geography and FBI.gov UCR.

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page combines Census ZIP-level figures with a ZIP-to-county crosswalk to attribute FBI UCR crime data honestly, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.