Forbes : Raleigh NC Top U.S. City For Young Professionals

Raleigh Ranked No. 2 USA City For Young Professionals

Forbes loves Raleigh, really!  Following a No. 1 ranking among the 50 Best Places for Business and Careers, and a No. 2 ranking on its list of the Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S., the magazine ranked the Raleigh region as No. 2 on it’s list of America’s Best Cities For Young Professionals.

Forbes wrote, “With an abundance of colleges and universities in the area such as University of North Carolina and Duke University, and Research Triangle, a major center for high-tech and biotech research, more than 42% of the local population touts BA degrees, making it the most educated of the cities we looked at.”

To determine the best cities for young professionals, which they define as adults aged from 24 to 34 who hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher, Forbes started with the 100 largest U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (cities and the suburbs surrounding them) as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Forbes assessed these cities based on seven factors, weighting them evenly:

1. Local unemployment rates
2. 2010 to 2012 job growth projections
3. Census Bureau data on the number of small businesses (defined as less than 500 employees) per capita
4. The number of large businesses
5. The median salaries for 24- to 34-year-old employed college graduates
6. Moody’s cost-of living index, to gauge how far those paychecks will go
7. The percentage of the population aged 25 and older with college degrees in the area

The college town turned boom town is garnering a lot of love, just another reason why we “love” calling Raleigh NC home!

Source: Raleigh Is Tops For Young Professionals