ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 28657

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

Data updated 2026-08-24

960
Property rate /100K (county)
8,201
Population (ZIP)
129
Violent rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 28657 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 28657 sits within Avery County, NC. The figures below are the county's own FBI UCR numbers for 2024, the most accurate available statistic for this location, not a ZIP-specific calculation.

Avery County reported a violent-crime rate of 129 per 100,000 residents and a property-crime rate of 960 per 100,000 in 2024, drawing on county-level agency submissions.

Based on just 23 reported violent incidents across a county population of 17,806, this count is too low to support a reliable per-100K rate comparison. It may reflect a genuinely low-crime county, or it may reflect incomplete agency-level reporting to the FBI UCR Program for this county and year, small county-level counts are common in FBI Table 10 and should be treated as a data point, not a precise safety ranking.

ZIP 28657 is the largest ZIP in Avery County by population, 8,201 residents (#1 of 8 county ZIPs), across 160 square miles (51/sq mi). For a full breakdown of Avery County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Avery County crime page linked below.

ZIP 28657 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). The property-led county proxy above is from Avery County agency submissions; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 28657 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
$50,216
Median age
49.9 years
Owner-occupied homes
80%
Occupied homes
3,635

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

Avery County UCR book ZIP 28657 inherits

ZIP 28657 itself is about 51 people per Census sq mi across 160 sq mi (8,201 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 28657's 8,201 residents are about 46.1% of the 2024 county reporting population (17,806), a large postal share of a county-wide rate.

Avery County leans on burglary at 46% of reported offenses (mix index 3,540). ZIP 28657 has no separate FBI offense book.

Avery County 2024 vs 2023: property counts +27% vs 2023. Year-over-year moves are county agency submissions, still not ZIP-native.

Avery 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 28657

Similar county violent rate (~129/100K)

Similar Census population (~8,201)

County detail: Avery 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.