Cary, North Carolina

Cary population, 2020 to 2024

Cary added 7,856 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +4.5%. In the latest year it moved by +1,454. Among 147 North Carolina places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 79th; the median place changed by +4.7%. The median place of 5,000+ in North Carolina has 14,573 people, so Cary is 12.5 times that size.

Cary covers 60.97 square miles of land and 1.11 of water, for 2,996 people per square mile of land. The median North Carolina place of 5,000+ has 1,316, so Cary is denser than the typical town.

The 3 counties Cary spans

Cary crosses county lines. The Census county-part estimates split its 182,659 residents as follows; Wake County holds 97.8% of them. The shaded shapes are on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Cary

4 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Cary by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the town's land: 27511, 27513, 27518, 27519. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a town that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Cary is

The Census internal point of Cary is at 35.781300, -78.823400. Raleigh, the capital, is 10.3 miles E in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Raleigh, NC (499,825 people), 10.8 miles away. The ground at the internal point is about 122 m (400 ft) above sea level.

Daylight in Cary

At 35.78° N, Cary gets about 14 h 35 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 44 min around the December solstice, a swing of 4 h 51 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026. Month-by-month sunrise and sunset times are on the Cary daylight page.

Places near Cary

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in North Carolina, measured between internal points. The closest is Morrisville, 3.9 miles away, with 32,628 people.