FINALIST
Raleigh, NC
Best big cities rank: 4
Population: 341,500
Compare Raleigh to Top 10 Best Places
Financial
  City stats Best places average
Median family income
(per year)
$70,407 $76,893
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)
$69,779 $68,109
Sales tax 7.00% 6.55%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)
8.25%* 6.46%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)
6.00%* 2.74%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average for the state)
$2,203 $2,207
Job growth %
(2000-2005)
10.82% 10.97%
Housing
  City stats Best places average
Median home price $203,012 $259,566
Home price gain
(2004-2005)
4.80% 9.26%
Education
  City stats Best places average
Colleges, universities and
professional schools
6 8
Junior colleges and
technical institutes
0 0
Test scores reading
(% +/- state average)
3.0% 13.3%
Test scores math
(% +/- state average)
0.6% 16.9%
% students attending
public/private schools
87.3/12.70 88.4/11.59
Quality of life
  City stats Best places average
Air quality index
(% of days AQI ranked as good)
64.6% 71.9%
Personal crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
104 45
Property crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
123 74
Personal crime incidents
(per 100,000)
580 228
Property crime incidents
(per 100,000)
3,768 3,105
Median commute time
(in minutes)
19.3 20.8
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer
8.3% 13.4%
Leisure and culture
  City stats Best places average
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)
12 22
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)
1,816 2,268
Bars
(within 15 miles)
59 127
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)
41 74
Libraries
(within 15 miles)
26 43
Museums (accredited by AAM
within 30 miles)
5 7
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 0 10
Weather
  City stats Best places average
Annual precipitation
(inches)
46.49 36.00
Clear days 111 107
High temp in July ° F 87.9° 87.7°
Low temp in Jan ° F 30.1° 23.5°
Health*
  City stats Best places average
Has health plan
(% of residents)
87.6% 88.2%
Body mass index
(avg. for residents)
27 27
Cancer mortality
(per 100,000, age-adjusted)
213.3 191.3
Cardiac mortality
(per 100,000)
182.4 202.0
Meet the neighbors
  City stats Best places average
Median age 31.9 34.5
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)
54.9% 63.9%
Married 42.0% 54.3%
Divorced 9.3% 9.3%
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)
$7,161 $7,549
*County data
Income tax notes:
These states allow personal exemption or standard deductions as provided in the IRC. Utah allows a personal exemption equal to three-fourths the federal exemptions.
The tax brackets reported are for single individuals. For married taxpayers, the same rates apply to income brackets ranging from $21,250 to $200,000. Lower exemption amounts allowed for high income taxpayers. Tax rate scheduled to decrease after tax year 2007.
Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details
North Carolina companies
FORTUNE: Best to work for
Company Best Companies
2006 Rank
Kimley-Horn & Associates 20
SAS Institute 30
See the rest
FORTUNE 500
Company F500 rank
Bank of America Corp. 12
Lowe's 42
Wachovia Corp. 57
See the rest
Biggest employers
Company Employees
Duke University 20,000
Duke University Health System 18,000
Burlington Industries Llc 13,699
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Information powered by OnBoard LLC
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.

Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.
Top earning cities
  Median household income
Greenwich, CT $112,493
Cupertino, CA $110,518
San Ramon, CA $109,500
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Hottest cities
  Avg. high temp
in July (°F)
Avondale, AZ 107.6°F
Glendale, AZ 107.6°F
Peoria, AZ 107.6°F
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Priciest homes
  Median price
Newport Beach, CA $1,362,500
Greenwich, CT $1,129,000
Santa Barbara, CA $979,500
See the rest
Most educated
  % residents with
graduate degrees
Arlington, VA 35.7%
Davis, CA 34.6%
Brookline, MA 32.5%
See the rest
Most singles
  % single residents
Bloomington, IN 58.2%
New Brunswick, NJ 54.6%
College Station, TX 54.3%
See the rest
Youngest
  Median age
Jacksonville, NC 22.90
Provo, UT 23.28
New Brunswick, NJ 24.16
See the rest

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.