Located at the southern end of North Carolina's Atlantic Ocean coastline, with access to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Ocean Isle Beach has many beach houses and second homes, and is a tourist attraction because of its beauty, atmosphere, and proximity to other major beach towns.
On October 28, 2007, the tiny, normally quiet community found itself in worldwide news as an early Sunday morning four-alarm fire at a three-story beach house occupied by 13 college students claimed seven lives, injuring six more. Widespread publicity and the magnitude of the tragedy of the Ocean Isle Beach house fire renewed public interest on issues in many communities which included fire safety, building codes, flamability of materials, and fire suppression methods such as sprinkler systems, as well as the potential benefits of monitored fire alarm systems, which can be added to existing structures at relatively minimal costs.
As of the census of 2000, there were 426 people, 209 households, and 141 families residing in the town. The population density was 124.2 people per square mile (48.0/km²). There were 2,507 housing units at an average density of 731.0/sq mi (282.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.59% White, 0.94% Native American and 0.47% Asian. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.47% of the population.
There were 209 households out of which 11.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.7% were married couples living together, 2.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 25.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.40.
In the town the population was spread out with 10.3% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 17.8% from 25 to 44, 45.3% from 45 to 64, and 21.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53 years. For every 100 females there were 99.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.9 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $67,639, and the median income for a family was $65,625. Males had a median income of $37,188 versus $22,188 for females. The per capita income for the town was $42,605. About 3.5% of families and 4.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.