Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Durham is a city of 305,561, and it grades C− overall, 179th of 286 graded towns in North Carolina. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 75% of the country and it is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns. The trade-offs: its crime rate is higher than 94% of U.S. towns, with 1,556 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025, and the typical home is worth about $385K, 4.6 years of the Durham metro’s $84K median household income. 42% of working residents work locally in Durham, above both North Carolina’s towns (6.8%) and U.S. towns (8%). Its National Register listings include Pauli Murray Family Home and Duke Homestead and Tobacco Factory.
Where Durham beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Pauli Murray Family Home| College | Students |
|---|---|
| Duke University | 16,196 |
| North Carolina Central University | 6,226 |
| Durham Technical Community College | 1,941 |
Pauli Murray Family Home is one of 4 National Historic Landmarks here, the National Register’s top tier. Its 68 National Register listings are more than in 98% of North Carolina towns with a listing.
Census counts: 2,041 in 1880, 283,506 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1883 and 4 maps from 1951 on.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Durham is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Durham. Close and well known come first.
16 mi Stadium & arenaLenovo Center
10 mi Stadium & arenaKenan Memorial Stadium
16 mi Stadium & arenaCarter–Finley Stadium
in town LandmarkBennett Place State Historic Site
10 mi Stadium & arenaDean Smith Center
16 mi Stadium & arenaWakeMed Soccer ParkLenovo Center: Edward T. Funkhouser, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kenan Memorial Stadium: Yeungb, CC BY 3.0 · Carter–Finley Stadium: SMaloney, CC BY 3.0 · Bennett Place State Historic Site: Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dean Smith Center: No machine-readable author provided. Snargle~commonswiki assumed (based on copyr, Public domain · WakeMed Soccer Park: Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Durham, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Durham.
Durham draws workers from Raleigh and beyond, but it reports more crime than Raleigh and its other graded neighbors and has a long record of flood insurance claims.
83 miles of trail in 85 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Jordan Game Land, 1,432 acres with 3.4 miles of trail. The trail density in Durham is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Durham | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 9.4% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. West Point on the Eno | 5.9 mi | 400 |
| 2. Sarah P. Duke Gardens | 4.8 mi | 54 |
| 3. Jordan Game Land | 3.4 mi | 1,432 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Durham Public Schools. Three of its 95 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherwood Githens MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 878 | B− |
| C E Jordan HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,189 | C+ |
| J D Clement Early College HSTop results in townGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 380 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
Each of the 4 graded towns on its borders reports less crime per resident, from Raleigh (D) to Cary (B). At 60.6 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 78% of North Carolina’s graded towns.
Durham’s property crime rate is 35.8 per 1,000 residents. Durham reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 94% report less. Durham’s violent crime rate is 5.1 per 1,000 residents.
| Durham | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 35.8 per 1,000 residents | 21.8 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.1 per 1,000 residents | 3.1 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
194,798 jobs are based in Durham, 1.6 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. Jobs based here grew from 148,237 in 2013 to 194,798.
23% of Durham workers work from home. Jobs based in Durham grew to 194,798 in 2023, 46,561 more than in 2013. The top destinations are Raleigh (13%), Chapel Hill (7%) and Cary (5%).
| Durham | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 23% | 12% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $82,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 13% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
11% of adults report frequent physical distress in Durham. Durham beats the North Carolina average on 10 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5. 17% of adults worry about having enough food in Durham.
| Durham | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 13% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 38% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 14% | 14% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 13% | 12% |
| What stands out | Durham | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 4.6% | 6.6% |
| Fewer adults with COPD | 5% | 7.1% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 9.6% | 8.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Durham has mild winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 90°, January nights drop to 29° and about 3 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The median property tax bill is $3,263, against $1,896 across North Carolina, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Durham home is worth about $385,000, down 3.7% in a year, 16% above the North Carolina typical home.
| Durham | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 52% | 67% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,508 a month | $1,084 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
276 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 44 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 57% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 276 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Durham.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
5 within 15 miles of the center of Durham
About 11 of every 100 Durham residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
228,330 counted in 2010 and 283,506 in 2020; an estimated 305,561 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 7.6% since 2020, after 24.2% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
68 places in Durham on the National Register of Historic Places.
23 notable people were born in Durham.
City in North Carolina, United States
Durham ( DURR-əm) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, being the county seat of Durham County, with outskirts of the city limits also extending into Orange County and Wake County. Durham is the 4th-most populous city in North Carolina and 70th-most populous city in the United States with a population of 283,506 at the 2020 census. The four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area has an estimated 620,000 residents, while the greater Research Triangle area has a population of over 2.37 million people. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. A railway depot was established in 1849 on land donated by Bartlett S. Durham, the eponym o…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Durham.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its C−; Raleigh (B−) is closest. Chapel Hill next door grades higher for schools (A to Durham’s C+) and lower for cost of living (D− to C−).
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durham | #179 | C− | C− | D | C+ | A− |
| Gorman | — | — | C+ | — | C+ | C |
| Chapel Hill | #46 | B+ | D− | C | A | A |
| Raleigh | #80 | B− | C | D | A− | A |
| Morrisville | #34 | B+ | C | C | A− | A+ |
| Cary | #11 | A | C− | B | A− | A+ |
Gorman has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Gorman reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Durham with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Durham grades C− overall, better than 23% of U.S. towns and #179 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades A− for health, D for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
23 notable people were born here, including Fred Brooks and James Buchanan Duke.
