City rankings

Community Wellbeing Score in North Carolina

Morrisville ranks #1 in North Carolina for community wellbeing score at 82.3.

This ranking orders all 50 qualifying North Carolina cities by wellbeing score, computed directly from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and CDC PLACES datasets, never a blended or proprietary score. It is one of 9 single-metric rankings Areazine publishes for North Carolina, each answering one direct question from official federal data. Compare Morrisville's standing against every other North Carolina city ranked below.

50
Cities ranked
82.3
#1 Morrisville
63.7
Lowest, Elizabeth City

What this North Carolina ranking shows

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, the CDC PLACES population-level health analysis, and the CMS Hospital Compare quality data, Areazine ranks U.S. cities across more than 19,000 incorporated places, census-designated places, and consolidated city-county governments. State-level city rankings combine these federal datasets to produce intra-state comparisons across demographics, economics, health outcomes, and hospital quality.

Morrisville leads 50 North Carolina cities at 82.3, while Elizabeth City sits at the bottom with 63.7 - a total spread of 18.6 on wellbeing score. The top 5 occupy 21% of that range, indicating a moderate distribution with meaningful steps between rungs.

The median North Carolina city in this list sits at 71.9, 10.4 behind Morrisville. See our methodology for ranking construction, data vintage, refresh cadence, and the federal upstream tables we join, and triangulate via the 8 other North Carolina rankings below, cities that lead on multiple lenses are the most robust signals.

Top 5 - Community Wellbeing Score

Top 5 North Carolina cities ranked by wellbeing score
Rank City wellbeing score Population
#1 Morrisville 82.3 24K
#2 Apex 79.9 46K
#3 Weddington 78.9 11K
#4 Cary 78.5 160K
#5 Huntersville 78.4 53K

Does wellbeing score track with city size?

Community Wellbeing Score vs. population, top 25 ranked cities

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (population), wellbeing score per methodology 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 25 entities by Population (X) and wellbeing score (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Large & strongSmall & strongLarge & weakSmall & weak 050,000100,000150,000200,000 70758085 Population wellbeing score Community Wellbeing Score vs. population, top 25 ranked cities
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (population), wellbeing score per methodology

Community Wellbeing Score 50

1 Morrisville
82.3
2 Apex
79.9
3 Weddington
78.9
4 Cary
78.5
5 Huntersville
78.4
6 Holly Springs
78.2
7 Matthews
78.2
8 Cornelius
77.8
9 Davidson
77.5
10 Pinehurst
76.9
11 Harrisburg
76.8
12 Wake Forest
76.7
13 Waxhaw
76.0
14 Summerfield
75.7
15 Stallings
74.1
16 Fuquay-Varina
73.8
17 Murraysville
73.6
18 Mooresville
73.2
19 Carrboro
73.1
20 Clemmons
72.9
21 Leland
72.9
22 Indian Trail
72.8
23 Mint Hill
72.1
24 Lewisville
72.1
25 Knightdale
72.0
26 Clayton
71.9
27 Southern Pines
71.8
28 Mebane
71.6
29 Belmont
71.5
30 Garner
71.2
31 Raleigh
70.6
32 Archdale
70.6
33 Mount Holly
70.1
34 Concord
69.5
35 Charlotte
69.4
36 Durham
68.9
37 Chapel Hill
68.7
38 Jacksonville
68.2
39 Asheville
67.9
40 Kernersville
67.5
41 Elon
67.4
42 Piney Green
67.3
43 Wilmington
66.4
44 Hendersonville
65.8
45 Havelock
65.7
46 Kannapolis
65.6
47 Newton
64.7
48 High Point
63.9
49 New Bern
63.9
50 Elizabeth City
63.7

More North Carolina Rankings 8

Most Affordable Cities in North Carolina Most Expensive Cities in North Carolina Highest Income Cities in North Carolina Largest Cities in North Carolina Fastest Growing Cities in North Carolina Most Educated Cities in North Carolina Cities with Lowest Unemployment in North Carolina Youngest Cities in North Carolina
All cities in North Carolina → Compare Morrisville vs Apex → All comparisons →

Reading this North Carolina ranking responsibly

Single-metric rankings are useful precisely because they are honest about what they measure. A "highest income" ranking does not tell you that the top-ranked city is the best place to live in North Carolina; it tells you that, among cities of population ten thousand and above in North Carolina that have a published median household income field in the most recent American Community Survey five-year estimates, this city has the highest such value. That precise definition matters, because composite "best places" lists from real-estate marketing sites and lifestyle magazines often combine income with subjective weights on schools, walkability, and amenities, producing a score whose components are not disclosed and whose ordering is not reproducible. Areazine's editorial commitment is to keep the underlying field, source, and vintage visible so the reader can audit any rank in this list against the canonical federal record.

Cross-checking against other rankings is a useful sanity test. A city that appears in the top ten on three or more different rankings, for example, highest income, most educated, and lowest poverty, is showing a robust signal across multiple independent dimensions. A city that appears in the top ten on only one ranking and middling on the others is showing a narrower signal, often driven by a single statistical artifact (a small population pulling the per-capita measure, a recent acquisition spike inflating median home value, an outlier survey year). The other nine North Carolina rankings linked above provide that cross-check at zero extra effort.

Data Sources

Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates). Health data from the CDC PLACES (2023). Ranking computations use U.S. Census Bureau reference geographies. Crime statistics, where referenced, originate from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting program (also accessible via the Crime Data Explorer).

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.