ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 28638

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

Data updated 2026-08-24

787
Property rate /100K (county)
11,630
Population (ZIP)
79
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 28638 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 28638 sits within Caldwell 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: 79 violent incidents and 787 property incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, per county-level agency submissions.

ZIP 28638 carries a Census-reported population of 11,630, ranking #3 of 5 ZIPs in Caldwell County, spread across 19.97 square miles (about 582 people per square mile). For a full breakdown of Caldwell County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Caldwell County crime page linked below.

ZIP 28638 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Caldwell County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 28638 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
$49,489
Median age
39.0 years
Owner-occupied homes
73%
Occupied homes
4,525

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 28638?

Within the participating-agency records for Caldwell County, reported violent and property crime rates both sit below their U.S. benchmarks: violent crime is 78% below and property crime is 54% 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 28638. 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.

ZIP 28638 sits near the middle of Caldwell County's ZIP population ordering (#3 of 5). The county comparison is useful regional context, but it cannot say how reported incidents are distributed within this postal area.

Caldwell County UCR book ZIP 28638 inherits

ZIP 28638 itself is about 582 people per Census sq mi across 20 sq mi (11,630 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 28638 accounts for roughly 14.4% of the county reporting population (11,630 of 80,652).

Caldwell County leans on larceny-theft at 57% of reported offenses (mix index 3,937). ZIP 28638 has no separate FBI offense book.

Caldwell County 2024 vs 2023: violent counts -2% vs 2023; property counts -12% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Caldwell 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 28638

Similar county violent rate (~79/100K)

Similar Census population (~11,630)

County detail: Caldwell 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.