Three North Carolina cities rank among top places for new college grads. Here’s why
North Carolina is home to three of the nation’s best places for new college graduates — and they aren’t far from each other, a new report finds.
Raleigh, Durham and Cary all earned top spots on lists of cities that have the most ideal conditions for people to live and work in after finishing school, according to results that CoworkingCafe published May 2.
To come up with the top places for recent bachelor degree graduates to launch their careers, the website from the online real estate company Yardi said it studied more than 200 U.S. cities — dividing them by population size. Using data from the federal government and other resources, the website then scored each group’s cities in the following categories: employment, finances and lifestyle.
Of the large cities — defined as having more than 400,000 residents — Raleigh was the only place in North Carolina to land near the top of the list. It ranked No. 10 after receiving high marks for having accessible jobs for younger workers and a high portion of people under 35 with a bachelor’s degree, results show.
North Carolina’s capital city also earned one of the highest scores in the financial category, which weighed costs, median income levels and employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. And when it came to the lifestyle category, Raleigh was found to have one of the highest densities of bars, restaurants and other entertainment options among the cities considered.
Raleigh’s recognition might not come as a surprise. The city recently was named a top destination for people across several age groups, including Generation Z, millennials and retirees. It also ranked among the best college towns after getting a boost for its activities, public safety and student-related population trends, McClatchy News reported.
In the more recent rankings, Raleigh wasn’t the only Triangle-area city to make its mark. Durham was No. 3, and Cary landed at No. 7 among mid-sized cities, which included those that are home to at least 150,000 residents.
Durham was a top-ranking place when it came to jobs for recent graduates, giving the city a high overall score “despite the $61,826 median income that pushed it out of the top 10 in the financial category,” according to the CoworkingCafe report.
Meanwhile Cary, just west of Raleigh, received a nod for being home to several businesses and scoring at the top of the financial category. The town boasts “a high median income of $84,511 and one of the largest shares of employer-based health insurance coverage among the young population, 80.6%,” CoworkingCafe wrote in a news release.
Overall, the nation’s top-ranking large city for those recently earning degrees was Atlanta. The No. 1 mid-sized place was Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., according to the results, which the report said couldn’t be compared across population brackets.
Just outside of the top 10, Charlotte ranked No. 11 among large cities. Meanwhile, other places in North Carolina were further down in the rankings for their respective categories, including: Wilmington at No. 48; Greensboro at No. 62; and High Point at No. 68.
