Is Ranlo a good place to live?
Ranlo is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, ranked 79th of 286 in North Carolina, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $78K. A typical home there costs about $260K, 3.1 years of the Charlotte metro’s $83K median household income. On hazard risk, just 12 of North Carolina’s 451 towns do better. Ranlo's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 99% of U.S. towns. Only 9 of the 153 North Carolina towns we compare have a lower property crime rate than Ranlo.
What makes Ranlo stand out
Where Ranlo beats most towns.
Ranlo has grown 41% since 2010
3,434 counted in 2010 and 4,511 in 2020; an estimated 4,848 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 7.6% since 2020, after 31.4% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
How Ranlo grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within North Carolina), ordered by how far Ranlo is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Bank of America Stadium and 22 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Ranlo. Close and well known come first.
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaBank of America Stadium
17 mi Theme parkCarowinds
17 mi LakeLake Norman12 mi MuseumSullenberger Aviation Museum70K visitors a year
20 mi Stadium & arenaBojangles Coliseum
34 mi LandmarkPeachoidPhoto credits
Bank of America Stadium: HangingCurve, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Carowinds: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lake Norman: Prince Grobhelm, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bojangles Coliseum: James Willamor, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Peachoid: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
Moving to Ranlo: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Ranlo, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Ranlo.
Ranlo fares better on crime within North Carolina than nationally and carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of North Carolina (mostly inland flooding).
Ranlo stands out in North Carolina and nationally, with the FEMA risk score lower than most
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 98% of North Carolina towns, with expected losses of about $164 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
Ranlo’s FEMA risk score is 13 of 100, against 47 of 100 in North Carolina’s towns and 44 of 100 across U.S. towns. One flood insurance claim has been paid in Ranlo since 2024.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Ranlo’s schools rank behind 55% of North Carolina districts
Its public schools are run by the Gaston County Schools. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warlick AcademyLargest public high schoolGrades 6–12 | Grades 6–12 | 175 | D− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NC on state tests and graduation
With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Ranlo’s workers commute out
Most working residents leave Ranlo for work: only 2% work in town. 5.5% of Ranlo residents live below the poverty line, where North Carolina’s towns sit at 13% and U.S. towns at 9.6%. The average trip to work in Ranlo is 21 minutes.
| Ranlo | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 5.5% | 13% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.8% | 6.8% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Ranlo’s grade for cost of living is a C+
Ranlo’s median rent is $1,811 a month. The typical Ranlo home is worth about $260,000, down 0.7% in a year, 22% below the North Carolina typical home. 62% of households own their home in Ranlo.
| Ranlo | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,811 a month | $1,084 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 62% | 67% | 73% |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Mild winters and hot summers in Ranlo
Ranlo has mild winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 90°, January nights drop to 31° and about 1 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Crime per resident in Ranlo is lower than in 59% of U.S. towns
At 14.9 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 88% of North Carolina’s graded towns.
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Ranlo is healthier than 53% of U.S. towns
Ranlo beats the North Carolina average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 39% of Ranlo adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Ranlo | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 34% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 33% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 17% | 17% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Ranlo | NC |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.5% | 7.9% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 5.5% | 6.6% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 17.2% | 13.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
| Ranlo | North Carolina towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.7% | 3.4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ranlo City Park | — | 6 |
| 2. Ranlo Community Park | — | 4 |
| 3. Warlick Track & Disc Golf Course | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Ranlo
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Ranlo
About 3 of every 100 Ranlo residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across North Carolina.
98% of working residents leave Ranlo for work
Where Ranlo’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About Ranlo
Town in North Carolina, United States
Ranlo is a small town in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States and a suburb of Charlotte, located north of Gastonia. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,511, up from 3,434 in 2010.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Established
- 1963
- Area
- 1.8 sq mi
- Elevation
- 797 ft
- Area code
- 704
Ranlo’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Ranlo.
| Town | NC rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranlo | #79 | B− | C+ | B | B− | B− |
| Springdale | — | — | B+ | — | B− | B |
| Lowell | #160 | C | B | C+ | B− | C− |
| Gastonia | #237 | D | C+ | D− | B− | C+ |
Springdale has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Springdale reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Ranlo with a neighbor →
Questions about Ranlo
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Ranlo, NC a good place to live?
Ranlo grades B− overall, better than 54% of U.S. towns and #79 of 286 in North Carolina. It grades B− for health, B for safety and B− for schools.
Is Ranlo, NC expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.