Women are ‘most successful’ in this North Carolina town, report finds. Here’s why
North Carolina is home to the town where women have the most success, a new report finds.
Cary, just west of Raleigh, ranks No. 1 on a national list that weighs education, pay and business outcomes for women, according to results released last week from SmartAsset.
And nearby cities aren’t far behind in the rankings.
Durham ranks No. 9 in the country, and Raleigh scored the No. 24 spot, results from the personal finance website show.
To come up with the places “where women are most successful,” SmartAsset says it examined 2018 U.S. Census data for the “200 biggest cities” in the United States.
Each city received scores for several metrics, including the portion of women with an undergraduate degree; portion who own businesses; and portion who earn at least $75,000 annually from full-time work. Analysts also evaluated the cities for women’s median full-time income as well as housing costs in comparison to those earnings, according to SmartAsset.
Cary received some of the best overall scores in two categories, results show.
“More than 68% of women in Cary have a bachelor’s degree, the second-highest rate in this study,” SmartAsset said. “Cary ranks sixth-highest in the study in terms of women business owners — almost 54% of all business owners in the city are women.”
Nearby, Durham snagged the No. 11 spot for its percentage of female business owners, findings show.
The city “in the heart of the North Carolina research triangle also finishes 29th-highest in terms of the percentage of women with a bachelor’s degree, at 50.53%,” SmartAsset said.
It’s not the first time Durham earned national recognition.
In March, the Bull City was named the No. 5 place in the country for women with jobs in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, The News & Observer reported. Educational attainment helped it to earn a high score from the real estate website CommercialCafe.
But the same month, a report from WalletHub found North Carolina was just an average place for women, ranking it No. 32 of all states and the District of Columbia. That study examined economic opportunities as well as safety, health care and attitudes about women, The State reported.
In the most recent report, which lists the top 50 cities for women’s success, the lowest-scoring was Frisco, Texas. The city is roughly 25 miles north of downtown Dallas.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Women are ‘most successful’ in this North Carolina town, report finds. Here’s why."
