This North Carolina city was named the best place to live for veterans. Here’s why

Simone Jasper
Chuck Liddy/cliddy@newsobserver.com

North Carolina is home to the nation’s best place for veterans to call home, a new report finds.

Raleigh ranks No. 1 on a list of cities boasting job opportunities, health care and other veteran-friendly offerings, according to results published last month from the personal finance website WalletHub.

To create the list, WalletHub said it studied the 100 most populous cities across the country. Using data from the U.S. government and other sources, it scored each city in four categories: employment, economy, quality of life and health.

Raleigh catapulted to the top of the list after it earned one of the highest scores for employment, a category that weighed the jobless rate for veterans as well as the presence of veteran owned-businesses and “military skill-related jobs,” results show.

North Carolina’s capital city also received high marks for its economy. Within that category, Raleigh was found to have one of the highest median veteran incomes but was closer to the middle of the pack when it came to affordable housing.

Raleigh ranked just outside of the top 10 when it came to quality of life, which considered population trends related to veterans and the presence of businesses that offer military discounts.

But Raleigh didn’t fare as well when it came to health, ending up in the No. 37 spot. That category considered the presence of VA facilities as well as the city’s COVID-19 vaccination rate.

North Carolina — home to Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune and other U.S. military installations — made its mark near the top and middle of WalletHub’s list. Durham landed at No. 14, Charlotte at No. 24, Winston-Salem at No. 56 and Greensboro at No. 59.

The results were released ahead of Veterans Day and may not come as a surprise. Raleigh led the pack after being named the fourth-best city for veterans the past two years, WalletHub officials told McClatchy News in an email.

In 2022, the city also has been named among the nation’s safest places to live and one of the best places to raise a family.

In the latest rankings, the other cities rounding out the top five were:

  • Austin, Texas

  • Laredo, Texas

  • Madison, Wisconsin

  • Tampa, Florida

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