QoL Rank
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North Carolina

North Carolina has a quality of life score of 47/100 (C, average) and ranks #30 of 51 states. Its strongest category is education (58) and its weakest is safety (36). Its top-rated larger counties are Camden County, Watauga County, Orange County.

  • Safety: 36
  • Cost of living: 51
  • Education: 58
  • Quality of life: 42

Key figures: violent crime 354.6 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $1,228 a month; median home value $288,900; median household income $70,838; life expectancy 75.9 years.

Counties in North Carolina, best first

  1. Camden County 68
  2. Watauga County 63
  3. Orange County 62
  4. Wake County 62
  5. Henderson County 61
  6. Union County 61
  7. Currituck County 61
  8. Transylvania County 60
  9. Madison County 58
  10. Dare County 58
  11. Lincoln County 56
  12. Chatham County 56
  13. Moore County 56
  14. Buncombe County 56
  15. Iredell County 56
  16. Davie County 55
  17. Carteret County 54
  18. Johnston County 54
  19. Cabarrus County 53
  20. Macon County 53
  21. Mitchell County 52
  22. Clay County 52
  23. Pender County 52
  24. New Hanover County 51
  25. Yancey County 51
  26. Haywood County 51
  27. Ashe County 51
  28. Surry County 51
  29. Burke County 51
  30. Avery County 50
  31. Stokes County 50
  32. Alexander County 50
  33. Catawba County 49
  34. Guilford County 49
  35. Polk County 49
  36. McDowell County 49
  37. Yadkin County 49
  38. Mecklenburg County 49
  39. Davidson County 48
  40. Cherokee County 48
  41. Perquimans County 48
  42. Caldwell County 48
  43. Wilkes County 47
  44. Jackson County 47
  45. Stanly County 47
  46. Onslow County 46
  47. Randolph County 46
  48. Durham County 46
  49. Alamance County 46
  50. Brunswick County 45
  51. Craven County 45
  52. Caswell County 45
  53. Gates County 45
  54. Pitt County 45
  55. Forsyth County 45
  56. Graham County 44
  57. Rutherford County 44
  58. Alleghany County 43
  59. Chowan County 43
  60. Greene County 43
  61. Granville County 42
  62. Beaufort County 42
  63. Montgomery County 42
  64. Swain County 42
  65. Wayne County 42
  66. Sampson County 41
  67. Franklin County 41
  68. Cleveland County 41
  69. Lee County 41
  70. Harnett County 40
  71. Cumberland County 40
  72. Martin County 40
  73. Pamlico County 40
  74. Gaston County 39
  75. Pasquotank County 39
  76. Wilson County 39
  77. Nash County 37
  78. Person County 37
  79. Rockingham County 37
  80. Duplin County 36
  81. Jones County 36
  82. Rowan County 35
  83. Tyrrell County 35
  84. Lenoir County 35
  85. Bertie County 34
  86. Hoke County 34
  87. Richmond County 31
  88. Anson County 29
  89. Washington County 28
  90. Bladen County 28
  91. Hertford County 28
  92. Northampton County 27
  93. Scotland County 27
  94. Edgecombe County 26
  95. Hyde County 26
  96. Columbus County 25
  97. Vance County 25
  98. Halifax County 25
  99. Warren County 24
  100. Robeson County 24

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources