These are the cream of the crop in the Tar Heel State.

Editor’s Note: We updated this article for 2020. This is our sixth time ranking the best places to live in North Carolina.

Where are the best places to live in the state of North Carolina?

Some might say wherever there's a college basketball team, a NASCAR track, a sunny beach, a snowy mountain, great BBQ, or a hoppy crafted beer. When you stumble upon all, you might feel like you've won the North Carolina Lottery.

And, yes, it's possible.

The Tar Heel state takes eight hours to drive from the Outer Banks on its East Coast to the Blue Ridge Mountains on its Western border. You'll never hear a North Carolinian say that they're bored. The eight hour trek unravels the state's rich history around every Tar Heel corner. The Outer Banks has pirate lore and shipwrecks, battles were lost and won in the Piedmont's backyard, and ancient Cherokee stories continue to be told around ceremonial fires in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Craft beer, BBQ, and NASCAR aside, North Carolina has a lot to offer and it is no surprise that the Tar Heel State is the 28th most expensive and the 9th most populous in the U.S. Currently 38% of North Carolinians are college-educated and with top colleges and universities like Duke and UNC, that percentage is sure to increase. Major metropolitan cities like Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte are crushing the tech industry and local business is booming.

So, grab a BBQ sammie, a pint of your favorite craft beer and read on to discover how we determined the best cities in North Carolina.

We wish every Tar Heel city could be in the top ten: they're all deserving.

But what city is the best place to live in North Carolina for 2020? Well according to the US Census and FBI data we crunched, Davidson is the best place to live in North Carolina if you care about home values, low crime, and a high quality of life.

It's not a surprise that Davidson takes the cake. What Davidson does not have by way of mountains and beaches, it does make up for with its beautiful neighborhoods, gold star schools, and sweet Carolina BBQ.

Read on to see where to live in North Carolina that will make you feel like you have won the lottery.

If you're looking for something more national, check out the best states in America or the best places to live in America.

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Next 10 Cities

Mapping The Best And Worst Places To Live in North Carolina

The Pressing Question: Size

Before we even started to collect data, we had to answer a tough question: Is it fair to pit Raleigh with a population of 457,159 against places with a population of 18?

We firmly decided no, that just isn't fair.

So to create our ranking, we broke places to live into three tiers:

Cities -- Populations over 5,000

Towns -- Populations between 1,000 and 5,000

Small Towns -- Populations below 1,000

This left us with 130 cities, 295 towns, and 250 small towns.

We then decided, no matter how much anyone loves their town, the best cities to live in North Carolina have more of everything and therefore you need to have over 5,000 people to truly be 'the best'.

Now we also realize that city living might not be your cup of tea, so we ran the following analysis on towns and then again for small towns.

You can see those two top tens at the bottom of the post.

How We Calculated The Best Cities To Live In North Carolina Now that we had our set of cities, it was time to rank them. We ranked each place in North Carolina across a number of criteria from one to 130, with one being the best. We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the city posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title "Best Place To Live In North Carolina". The criteria we looked at were: Median Home Values

Median Income

Population Density (Higher better)

Unemployment Rate

Commute Time

Crime

Education Levels

Health Insurance Coverage

Poverty rates Sources of criteria include the New Census Data and FBI Crime Data. You can download the data here. After the dust settled, what was the best place to live in North Carolina? That would be Davidson. If your city or town isn't among the top 10, jump down to the bottom of the post to see a detailed chart of the best places in North Carolina. Otherwise, buckle up for a ride down good living lane with Davidson at the end of the cul-de-sac.



Wrapping Up The Best Places When It Comes To Living In North Carolina

If you're looking at areas in North Carolina with the best economic situations, where there's lower than average crime, and a lot to do, this is an accurate list.

Davidson made a strong showing to take in the overall number one spot for the best place to live in North Carolina for 2020.

Best Towns To Live In North Carolina

Wrightsville Beach (Pop. 2,546) Royal Pines (Pop. 4,751) Biltmore Forest (Pop. 1,516) Trent Woods (Pop. 4,194) Avery Creek (Pop. 2,716) Fearrington Village (Pop. 2,984) Weaverville (Pop. 3,886) Bermuda Run (Pop. 2,556) St. James (Pop. 4,438) Lake Park (Pop. 3,678)

Best Small Towns To Live In North Carolina

Walnut Creek (Pop. 936) Bald Head Island (Pop. 284) Hatteras (Pop. 481) Washington Park (Pop. 577) Barker Ten Mile (Pop. 834) Deercroft (Pop. 476) Cedar Rock (Pop. 324) JAARS (Pop. 508) Alamance (Pop. 902) Montreat (Pop. 521)

If you're curious enough, here are the worst places to live in North Carolina according to the data:

Selma (Pop. 6,577) Wadesboro (Pop. 5,351) Roxboro (Pop. 8,283)

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