Beach People Didn’t Crack North Carolinians’ Top 5 Identities in an Elon Poll

If someone asked you to pick the labels that fit you, which ones would you choose?

A poll this year asked North Carolinians exactly that, and the ranking holds a few surprises.

Here’s how the labels ranked, from the ones that fit the most people on down.

How the Poll Was Run

The Elon University Poll wrote the survey, and YouGov, an online survey company, ran it.

In the poll’s questionnaire, each person rated labels such as working class and prepper on a scale from a lot to not at all.

Think of it as rating how well a description fits you.

The percentages here count everyone who said a label fits them a lot or somewhat, and by that count, the poll’s release puts beach people at 51% of respondents.

Elon asked 800 North Carolina adults about 30 labels between July 23 and July 31, 2026.

The margin of error is about four points.

That means you should treat labels a point or two apart as tied.

Ties show up often.

Here are the identities that fit the most respondents, ranked from first place on down.

1. Working Class

Working class tops the Elon poll’s list at 77% in the poll’s release, or nearly eight in 10 North Carolinians.

The full report’s chart shows 78%.

It edged out proud North Carolinian, which landed at 74%.

The poll asked how much each label fits you personally, so working class here is how people describe themselves.

You’re in good company.

2. Proud North Carolinian

Proud North Carolinian shares second place at 74%, tied with anti-racist.

That’s nearly three in four people.

If you want a reason for the pride, the Wright brothers are one: Wilbur and Orville made history in Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.

You may remember they flew four times that day.

The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered about 120 feet.

By the last flight that day, Wilbur kept the airplane up for 59 seconds and 852 feet.

That was seven times farther.

3. Anti-Racist

Anti-racist shares second place with proud North Carolinian at 74%, and no label takes third.

The poll’s release says it lands in the top 10 choices for Republicans at 66%, independents at 75% and Democrats at 80%.

Put another way, two in three Republicans and four in five Democrats say it fits them.

If you expected a party split, Republicans and Democrats sit 14 points apart on it.

Both rank it top 10.

4. Middle Class

Middle class takes fourth place at 68%, about nine points behind working class.

About two in three people said it fits them.

To put dollars next to the label, the Census Bureau lists North Carolina's median household income as $72,388 for 2020 through 2024, in 2024 dollars.

That works out to roughly $6,000 a month before taxes.

If your household brings in that much, you're sitting at the midpoint, with half of the state's households making more.

The other half makes less.

5. Religious

Religious ties Second Amendment advocates for fifth place at 58%, and country people follow in seventh.

Because of the ties at 74% and 58%, six labels fill the top five spots.

Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study found that 68% of North Carolina adults are Christian and 26% are religiously unaffiliated.

The two surveys ask different questions: Pew asks which religion you identify with, if any, while Elon asked how well religious describes you.

Different questions, different numbers.

Country People

Country people rank seventh at 56%, five points ahead of beach people.

North Carolina had 42,814 farms in 2022, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

North Carolina also ranked eighth in the country in the value of agricultural products sold, at $18.7 billion.

A five-point gap sits close to the poll's margin of error, so you can treat country and beach as neighbors on the list.

If country fits you, you're with a majority of the people the poll surveyed.

Beach is two spots down.

Beach People

Beach people tie environmentalists and one other label for ninth place at 51%, one point behind constitutionalists at 52%.

Eight labels finished ahead of the beach, and the cutoff for the top five was 58%.

That left beach people seven points short.

The coast has federal history behind it, too: Congress authorized Cape Hatteras National Seashore as the first national seashore in 1937, and the park was established in 1953.

It has more than 70 miles of ocean shoreline on the Outer Banks.

If beach weekends shape your summer, you're in a group that's about half of the poll's respondents.

Preppers

About 1 in 5 respondents say prepper fits them, according to the poll's release.

You don't have to claim the label to stock a shelf.

ReadyNC, a North Carolina emergency preparedness site, tells you to keep a 3-to-7-day supply of water and food.

The water works out to 1 gallon per person per day, so a family of 4 needs 12 to 28 gallons.