A city of 52,844, settled in 1880. Nearly 11.1% of it is conserved land.
The 3 things Wake Forest does most differently from other towns.
1939 · Baling hay on the Mary E. Jones place o…10 postcards, papers and photographs from public archives, and 18 places on the National Register.
30,117 people in 2010; 52,844 today.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 · ACS
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Nothing on the calendar.
Ordered by what stands out in Wake Forest. Another town gets a different order.
23 miles of trails across 15 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wake Forest Reservoir Park | 8.2 mi | 201 |
| 2. Neuse River Greenway | 0.4 mi | 150 |
| 3. J.B. Flaherty Park | 0.3 mi | 42 |
Most working residents leave Wake Forest for work: only 9% work in town. The top destinations are Raleigh (34%), Durham (10%) and Cary (5%). Half commute less than 17 miles.
The public schools Wake Forest’s kids attend, from kindergarten through graduation, outperform 74% of North Carolina’s districts on state tests and graduation. Among towns with similar incomes, they rank near the top.
| School | Grades | Students | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endeavor Charter School | K–8 | 799 | A+ |
| Envision Science Academy | K–8 | 759 | A |
| Casa Esperanza Montessori Charter School | PK–8 | 752 | B+ |
| Wake Forest Charter Academy | K–8 | 650 | A− |
| Heritage Elementary | PK–5 | 634 | A |
| Richland Creek Elementary | PK–5 | 558 | B− |
Wake Forest beats the North Carolina average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0.
| What stands out | Wake Forest | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.1% | 15.2% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.7% | 13.9% |
The typical Wake Forest home is worth about $507,000, down 1% in a year, 51% above the North Carolina typical home.
Wake Forest has mild winters and warm summers. A typical July afternoon reaches 90°, a January night drops to 30°, and about 2 inches of snow falls in a normal winter.
Wake Forest reports less crime per resident than 53% of the U.S. towns and cities we grade.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 48% of U.S. communities.
1939
Untitled photo, possibly related to: Baling hay on the Mary E. Jones place of about 140 acres. The sons W.E. and R.E. J…
Photo · Library of Congress. A different picture from Wake Forest’s archive appears here every day.
See all 10 archive items →18 places in Wake Forest on the National Register of Historic Places.
14 notable people were born in Wake Forest.
Town in North Carolina, United States
Wake Forest is a town in Wake and Franklin counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the state capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601, up from 30,117 in 2010. It is part of the Raleigh metropolitan area. Wake Forest was the original home of Wake Forest University for 122 years before it moved to Winston-Salem in 1956.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Wake Forest.
