Raeford is a very small city located in the state of North Carolina. With a population of 4,578 people and ten associated neighborhoods, Raeford is the 176th largest community in North Carolina.

Raeford is a military town: the armed forces employs 6.02% of the workforce, making the military a major focus of life in the city. In the civilian sector, Retail and Education are important in the local economy and are the city’s largest civilian employers, employing 18.35% and 15.00% of the civilian workforce respectively.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 7.71% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Being a small city, Raeford does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

The education level of Raeford citizens is a little higher than the average for US cities and towns: 23.64% of adults in Raeford have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Raeford in 2022 was $25,705, which is lower middle income relative to North Carolina, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $102,820 for a family of four. However, Raeford contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Raeford is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Raeford home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Raeford residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Raeford include English, Irish, German, Italian, and Scots-Irish.

The most common language spoken in Raeford is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.