Charlotte vs Raleigh: No holds barred! (Greensboro, Durham: living in, restaurants, vs.)

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by urbancharlotte

No I don't being that one of the Nation's largest biotech labs is in metro Charlotte. In time, this place in Kannapolis will only boost Charlotte's population of people with advanced degrees. Also, UNCC (from what I've heard) is the fastest growing university in the state and has been for quite some time now. It is projected to be the state's largest university by 2030 (maybe even sooner). Also, metro Charlotte gained a school of Pharmacy at Wingate University and a school of law (near uptown) this past decade. The Triangle is certainly the top area in this state for higher learning, but Charlotte is working hard on closing that gap. This much you can not deny. There are too many numbers "out there" that proves what I am saying. The net migration of the educated class was your first clue. Here is a video of a UNCC rave to help you understand the "Niner Nation" movement going on here in Charlotte. Enjoy!!!

Thanks, you just proved my point about your inability to understand trends, statistics, and %'s. You can continue to grasp at annecdotal examples or pull a years worth of data here or there to attempt to justify your guess work, but your inability to interpret long term trends or look at the big picture is your downfall and the source of your overall lack of credibility when trying to have an educated discussion about these types of things. I am happy to see Charlotte continue to grow in the Tech field much like the Triangle has done for decades. No doubt both areas will continue to see their educated classes grow over time.

[Carolina Blue]

Hold on everybody, blow the whistle, TIME OUT!!!! LOL.

Let’s clear up a few things….

1) Raleigh has a greater “percentage” of educated young people in its population (see graph below)

Percentage of College Graduates:



2) Charlotte has one of the highest “net migration rates” of the young and educated in the country, much higher than Raleigh’s. Charlotte ranked #2 in the last census study that was done. Charlotte’s Rate = 344.3, Raleigh’s Rate, including Durham = 49.2…

Full Study: http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-12.pdf

Full Tables: http://www.census.gov/population/www...bles/tab02.pdf

Raleigh attracts a lot of young educated folks, but it appears it’s a bit of a revolving door. Apparently most of Raleigh’s growth comes from the retention of an older, more stable family type population. I recall reading that the fact that Raleigh is such a college town area, also makes it’s population very transient. People who work in education, and R&D, and also students themselves tend to move a lot.

Top Metros for Net Migration of the Young and Educated:

[urbancharlotte]

^^^^Thanks for the numbers carolinablue!!! Just as I thought, Raleigh has a higher percentage of the educated class, but Charlotte has one of the Nation's fastest growing educated class. In your first chart, Raleigh showed very little gain from 2000 to 2007 (0.2%). Charlotte posted a 2.2% increase in that same time period. Charlotte is on pace to having a higher percentage of the educated class than Raleigh very soon. Wow!!!

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Thanks Carolina Blue. That is some great info. I would still be very interested to see the % of population and % a transplants moving to each area that have Masters and PhDs. When you lump all of them together in a "college educated" category along with BS degrees I think some interesting details get lost. For example you might get 5,000 people with BS degrees moving to Charlotte and only 4,000 people with PhDs moving to Raleigh. So who has the "most educated" population influx? Do you go by raw numbers 5K vs. 4K or do the 4,000 people with both a BS + Masters + PHD represent a different level of "educated class".

I know it sounds snobby comparing things like this, but when talking about categories within a population sometime when you dissect the details you discover the gross number can be deceiving.

Again, thanks for the useful info Carolina Blue.

[Carolina Blue]

Also as an FYI, you can see how many people in each area have Bachelors vs. Masters degrees. The Census is a wealth of information, LOL!!!!!

Raleigh Graduate Degree Holders = 82,658
Link: Raleigh-Cary, NC Metro Area - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2005

Durham Graduate Degree Holders = 58,235
Link: Durham, NC Metro Area - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2005

Charlotte Graduate Degree Holders = 86,456
Link: Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC Metro Area - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2005

And as far as who has the most numerical degree holders in both areas, please see below (I just counted Bachelors, because if you have a Masters, you obviously have a Bachelors)…

Raleigh-Durham CSA
Raleigh MSA = 167,147
Durham MSA = 63,847
Dunn, NC = 6,775
Total Degree Holders in CSA = 237,769

Charlotte CSA
Charlotte MSA = 209,031
Statesville-Mooresville, NC = 13,192
Lincolnton, NC = 5,395
Salisbury, NC = 11,281
Shelby, NC = 6,722
Total Degree Holders in CSA = 245,621

Link: American FactFinder

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Thanks for the great infor Carolina Blue!

Positive Rep coming your way.

[the 7 oh 4]

My vote goes to Charlotte. Previously lived in Raleigh. They are still a little behind times. Raleigh is a nice smaller-midsize city though.

It takes -4- cities in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill) and the populations still is less than metro Charlotte. I know it is not about population...but thought I would throw that in.

Props to you "Urban Charlotte" for excellent pics of the CLT!

I am not a beach person...so in Charlotte you can work 1/2 day and drive to Ski Beech or Sugar Mountain (when they have fresh snow) and ski during the afternoon & night and be back home that evening.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

One of these days it would be good to understand everyone's fascination with population. I think we can all agree that both Charlotte and Raleigh are gorwing in population year to year and the City of Charlotte has a higher population than the City of Raleigh (I am not going to get in the endless debates about "metros" and "CSA" or "MSA").

So looking past the population, unless of course population is the only thing that matters to you, what is it you like about one place over the other?

I like Raleigh a little more because of the academic presence with NC State, UNC Chapel Hill, and Duke (among the other fine universities). I also like the research oriented job field here. I also like having access to the beach in 2 hours on the weekends (We go to Wrightsville often in the summer). I enjoy the redevelopment of downtown Raleigh and the new restaurants and bars that are constantly coming to the area.

That is one of the things I like about Charlotte too, I have gone to the "Uptown" area a few times with friends there and I think it is agreat. I also love the light rail system Charlotte has.

There are lots of pluses to Charlotte and Raleigh. It really doesn't have to be an "either / or" situation. I think more often than not it comes down to where the best job opportunity is for the individual. I certainly seems that way based on all the posts I've read over the years here on city-data. This has also been the case with my friends who live in both Raleigh and Charlotte.

I feel lucky in that I can find ways to enjoy both of these great cities in NC.

[adavi215]

As I continue to read this thread I become more and more fascinated. Charlotte and Raleigh are freakin awesome! I don't see that many states that have two cities attracting so many talented and bright individuals. It is good to see Charlotte gaining advanced degree peoples and to see Raleigh gaining more people at a higher percentage. These statistics continue to boost my original post in that Charlotte and Raleigh are putting NC on the map and they are the powerhouses of NC. I wonder how the "Piedmont Crescent" would look if we had a high-speed rail linking Raleigh to Charlotte. For those people familiar with the Southend LRT development boom, imagine that from Raleigh to Charlotte. Incredibly awesome.

[Akhenaton06]

Honestly, since bachelor's degrees are essentially the 21st century version of high school diplomas, I would go with graduate degrees in determining how educated a particular populace is.