Cherokee County, North Carolina

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

65 MW Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Core Scientific

Resi rate Δ (Duke Energy Carolinas)

+28.3%

Home price Δ (3y)

+11.6%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+8.8%

Population (2024 ACS)

30K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$53,628

Key takeaways

Cherokee County has 29,197 residents with a median age of 53.3, the oldest of any AI host county in this batch. Median household income is $51,496.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013, B01002 (FIPS 37039)
Core Scientific's 65 MW Marble site is small by current AI standards but represents a roughly $250 million capital investment in a county whose entire annual GDP is under $1 billion. The CoreWeave lease is the anchor tenant.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Marble) + Census ACS 2023 B19013
Duke Energy Carolinas residential rates rose 28.3% from 2021 to 2023, the same jump felt across the Carolinas. On Cherokee's $51,496 median household income, that 28.3% rate move adds about $330 per year to a typical bill before the Marble load energizes.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Duke Energy Carolinas, NC) + Census ACS 2023 B19013
Home prices rose 11.6% over three years against a $208,700 median home value. Only 24.2% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree, and the county lost population between 2010 and 2020.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 37039) + Census ACS 2023 B25077, B15003

11.3% of Cherokee County adults are veterans, the second-highest veteran share in this batch behind Sarpy NE. The aging veteran population overlaps with the county's 53.3-year median age and explains the high homeownership rate.Source: Census ACS 2023 B21001 (FIPS 37039)
83.6% of Cherokee County households own their home, the highest homeownership rate of any county in this batch. Only 16.4% rent, so the Core Scientific Marble campus lands in a community where housing stock is owner-controlled and slow to flip.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003 (FIPS 37039)
14.6% of Cherokee residents live below poverty, the highest poverty rate among the four North Carolina AI counties in this batch. The 91.2% white, 1.5% Black, 3.5% Hispanic profile makes Marble the most demographically homogeneous Carolinas data-center host.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B02001, B03003 (FIPS 37039)
Only 82.2% of Cherokee households have a wired broadband subscription, the lowest in North Carolina across this batch. The Murphy and Marble area sits on the western edge of the state's broadband-equity gap that the Core Scientific build will not close on its own.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 37039)