NC cities among best places in the US to raise a family. Here’s which ones

Out-of-state homebuyers are flocking to North Carolina in droves, but where is the best place to raise a family in the Tar Heel State?

According to personal finance site WalletHub, Raleigh is among the best places to raise a family, coming in at No. 44 nationally.

Two other North Carolina cities were near the top of the list — Durham and Charlotte, which came in at No. 65 and No. 70, respectively.

Out of 182 cities, Greensboro was ranked 140th on the list, followed closely by Winston-Salem, at No. 150. And for North Carolina cities, Fayetteville was ranked last at No. 166.

Is Raleigh, Charlotte a good place to live?

The report comes just a month after Charlotte and Raleigh each ranked in the top 10 for best cities to live by U.S. News, The Charlotte Observer reported.

WalletHub also rated Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte among the happiest cities in the nation earlier this year, coming in at No. 22, 29 and 52, respectively. And in last November, U.S News ranked Raleigh and Charlotte at No. 6 and No. 9, respectively, on its list of best cities to retire in the U.S.

Raleigh was also included in a ranking of the most popular destinations for movers in 2025 by Move Buddha, a Georgia-based moving and storage company. The city came in at No. 53 on its list.

However, the report also included a caveat — Raleigh saw a major uptick in crime from 2020-2024, while Asheville (which came in at No. 6 on the list) saw violent crime drop by 33% during the same time period.

Best cities to raise a family

According to WalletHub, these are the top 10 cities for families in the United States:

1. Fremont, California

2. Overland Park, Kansas

3. Plano, Texas

4. Irvine, California

5. South Burlington, Vermont

6. Seattle, Washington

7. Boise, Idaho

8. Gilbert, Arizona

9. Bismarck, North Dakota

10. San Diego, California

Read the full list at wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-for-families.

What are the worst US cities to raise a family?

According to WalletHub, these are the worst cities for families in the United States:

1. Memphis, Tennessee

2. Detroit, Michigan

3. Cleveland, Ohio

4. Gulfport, Mississippi

5. Newark, New Jersey

6. Birmingham, Alabama

7. Baltimore, Maryland

8. San Bernadino, California

9. Jackson, Mississippi

10. Hialeah, Florida

Wallethub methodology

To find the cities most conducive to family life, WalletHub compared 182 U.S. cities across five key metrics: family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability and socioeconomics.

The personal finance website assigned each metric a score on a 100-point scale, with 100 indicating the most favorable conditions for family life. WalletHub then calculated a weighted average for each city based on these scores to determine its overall ranking.

The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Numbeo and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additional information was gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM with the headline "NC cities among best places in the US to raise a family. Here’s which ones."

Evan Moore

The Charlotte Observer

Evan Moore is a service journalism reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He grew up in Denver, North Carolina, where he previously worked as a reporter for the Denver Citizen, and is a UNC Charlotte graduate.