NC Has Some Of Fastest-Growing Cities In US: Study

NORTH CAROLINA— When it comes to explosive economic growth, southern states are riding high, including some cities in North Carolina that are ranked high when it comes to keeping pace as some of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., according to consumer finance site WalletHub.

When it comes to the fastest growing city in the Tar Heel state, it probably comes as little surprise that honor goes to Charlotte, which ranked No. 32 out of 515 cities, behind Temecula, California and Lake Charles, Louisiana. The second fastest growing city in the region was Concord, according to WalletHub. At the other end of the scale, however, were Fayetteville and Jacksonville, which ranked near the bottom when it came to the pace of growth.

So how did WalletHub come up with its rankings? "To determine where the fastest local economic growth has occurred in the U.S., WalletHub compared 515 cities of varying population sizes based on 15 key measures of both growth and decline over a period of seven years," the site said. "Our data set ranges from population growth to unemployment rate decrease to growth in regional GDP per capita."

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Here's how North Carolina cities fared in the rankings:

• 32. Charlotte
• 38. Concord
• 44. Cary
• 88. Raleigh
• 92. Durham
• 197. Wilmington
• 225. Gastonia
• 257. Winston-Salem
• 351. High Point
• 355. Greensboro
• 361. Greenville
• 467. Jacksonville
• 496. Fayetteville

According to WalletHub, these are the five fastest-growing cities in America:

• Fort Meyers, FL
• Midland, TX
• Pearland, TX
• Bend, OR
• McKinney TX

These are the five slowest-growing cities, according to the study:

• Youngstown, OH
• Lawton, OK
• Erie, PA
• Shreveport, LA
• Decatur, IL

Read the full results here.

Photo via Shutterstock