Morrisville takes the #1 spot in North Carolina's Best Demographics ranking, posting 99.8 on the Demographics Score measure. This leaderboard ranks 142 cities on demographic strength, drawing on U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. The Demographics Score score blends multiple inputs into a single comparable figure, so towns of different sizes and budgets can be lined up side by side.
| # | City | Demographics Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Morrisville | 99.8 / 100 |
| 2 | Apex | 99.6 / 100 |
| 3 | Chapel Hill▲1 | 99.4 / 100 |
| 4 | Holly Springs▼1 | 99.2 / 100 |
| 5 | Whispering Pines▲1 | 99.0 / 100 |
| 6 | Waxhaw▼1 | 98.8 / 100 |
| 7 | Carrboro | 98.7 / 100 |
| 8 | Knightdale▲1 | 98.5 / 100 |
| 9 | Elon▲6 | 98.1 / 100 |
| 10 | Marvin▼2 | 97.7 / 100 |
Top 10 preview: showing 10 of 142 ranked cities.
Unlock all 142 in Compare →Cities and towns ranked by a composite of household income, education attainment, and median age. Ranked 142 cities with a population of 5,000 or more.
A 0–100 score blending three demographic signals with the weights above. For each ingredient, the city in the state with the strongest number scores 100 and the weakest scores 0, then we weight-average them.
The top 5 reads as a tight cluster at the high end: Morrisville at 99.8, Apex at 99.6, and Chapel Hill at 99.4 round out the leaders. Each town earned its place by clearing the bar on the underlying inputs, and the spread between #1 and #3 is narrow enough that small year-over-year shifts can reorder the podium. At the other end of the list, Roxboro posts 6.5, a useful reference point for understanding the full range of conditions across the state.
Compare any two North Carolina cities side by side, open the methodology card to see how the Demographics Score score is built, or browse other North Carolina rankings to see how the leaders here perform on schools, taxes, and growth.
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