Wilmington, NC · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Wilmington, NC, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2024R+11.5
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+13.9
Registration and the presidential vote track closely here — within 2.3 points.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Wilmington, NC
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
253,376
99,367
89,498
64,242
269
2012
278,865
98,486
96,089
83,118
1,172
2016
305,713
95,299
104,343
104,369
1,702
2020
337,675
92,264
118,598
124,070
2,743
2022
354,600
91,161
123,926
136,849
2,664
2024
384,043
90,785
135,122
154,324
3,812
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+12,719 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +140,966 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Wilmington, NC in Wilmington, NC: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+4,752
2012
+4,545
2013
+7,080
2014
+6,846
2015
+8,397
2016
+10,580
2017
+10,267
2018
+11,057
2019
+9,501
2021
+14,662
2022
+15,973
2023
+12,930
2024
+11,657
2025
+12,719
The Wilmington metro anchors southeastern North Carolina's fastest-growing corridor, where an influx of retirees and proximity to Camp Lejeune produce an electorate that swings notably on veterans' issues and coastal-economy concerns.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 66.1 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 47.6 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 2.2 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 13.9 points.
A population of 453,347, a 77% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $76,547 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC and Barnstable Town, MA.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Wilmington, NC, North Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/48900/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Wilmington, NC, North Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, Wilmington, NC, North Carolina voted Republican by 13.9 points (R+13.9), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 287,021 votes cast, 121,831 went Democratic and 161,649 went Republican.
When did Wilmington, NC, North Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Wilmington, NC, North Carolina voted Democratic was 1976.
How many people live in Wilmington, NC, North Carolina?
Wilmington, NC, North Carolina has a population of 453,347 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Wilmington, NC, North Carolina?
Median household income in Wilmington, NC, North Carolina is $76,547 — below the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Wilmington, NC, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Wilmington, NC, North Carolina from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 18 went Democratic and 15 went Republican.
