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Six of the nation’s best cities for recent college graduates are in North Carolina, a new report finds.
That’s because the state is packed with places offering job opportunities and attractions that appeal to people who just finished their degrees, according to results published in June. Here’s how the cities fared in the top 25 on lists from the workplace-focused website CoworkingCafe:
- Charlotte at No. 11 for large cities
- Raleigh at No. 12 for large cities
- Cary at No. 9 for mid-sized cities
- Durham at No. 23 for mid-sized cities
- Wilmington at No. 12 for small cities
- Asheville at No. 18 for small cities
“With the class of 2026 entering a job market shaped by uneven hiring, AI-driven skill shifts and rising competition for entry-level roles, the study looks at where new grads have the strongest mix of jobs, income, affordability, benefits, lifestyle amenities and coworking access,” CoworkingCafe wrote in a news release.
NC cities rank high for new college grads
To determine the top places for people to launch their careers, CoworkingCafe said it studied more than 300 cities across the country. Using data from the U.S. government, it scored each place in the following three categories: employment, financial and lifestyle. It also sorted cities into these population groups:
- Large cities: More than 400,000 people
- Mid-sized cities: 150,000 to 400,000 people
- Small cities: Fewer than 150,000 people
Of the North Carolina cities that received nods, Cary was the only place to break into the top 10. The town - just west of Raleigh - is home to about 183,000 people.
Cary ranked high as CoworkingCafe said it offered “recent grads a strong earning outlook with median graduate income approaching $90,000” and costs “roughly 2% below the national average.”
Cary and fellow mid-sized city Durham also made their marks when it came to having residents ages 18 to 34 who went to college. In both places, CoworkingCafe found just over half of young adults have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. But that factor didn’t drive all of North Carolina's success in the rankings.
“Regarding North Carolina’s strong showing, the results suggest that its cities generally performed well across a combination of employment, education, health coverage and lifestyle indicators, although the specific strengths varied by city,” a CoworkingCafe spokesperson told The N&O via email.
“For example, Charlotte had a 3.6% unemployment rate among residents ages 20 to 29, the fourth-lowest rate in its population category. Raleigh also performed well for employer-based health insurance coverage, with 69.1% of residents ages 19 to 34 covered through an employer, ranking third in its category.”
When it came to smaller North Carolina cities, quality-of-life factors stood out. Both Asheville and Wilmington ranked in the top 10 in their population group for the number of restaurants, bars and entertainment venues per 100,000 residents, results show.
How did other NC cities rank?
Across population sizes, other North Carolina cities landed outside the top 25. Here’s where those cities placed in the rankings:
- Winston-Salem at No. 56 for mid-sized cities
- Greensboro at No. 71 for mid-sized cities
- Fayetteville at No. 94 for mid-sized cities
- Gastonia at No. 79 for small cities
- High Point at No. 80 for small cities
- Jacksonville at No. 103 for small cities
If you still want to reminisce about campus life after graduation, North Carolina is home to some top-ranked places to visit. Earlier this year, Boone and Chapel Hill both were named among the South’s best college towns and the nation’s most underrated college towns, The News & Observer previously reported.
On the latest lists from CoworkingCafe, here are the places that earned the top spots for each population size:
- Atlanta at No. 1 for large cities
- Arlington, Virginia, at No. 1 for mid-sized cities
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, at No. 1 for small cities
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