Counties where children have the best opportunity for economic mobility in North Carolina
This story originally appeared on Wealth Enhancement Group and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Counties where children have the best opportunity for economic mobility in North Carolina
Americans have long understood that their birthplace can significantly affect their futures, and academics have increasingly been able to connect tangible early life factors like where they live and the friendships they've cultivated with potential future income.
Among the most recent studies shedding light on what's known as economic mobility—a person's ability to move themselves and their families up the socioeconomic ladder over their lifetime—are a series of papers authored by Harvard University researchers leveraging vast troves of social networking data.
As part of a national analysis, Wealth Enhancement Group used data from Harvard University's Social Capital Atlas project to identify where in North Carolina children have the best (and worst) chances at upward economic mobility.
The research draws on a privacy-protected dataset representing 21 billion friendships from Facebook made public through its parent company Meta's Data for Good project. It also uses anonymous tax records, according to the authors. The scholars assigned a score to locales according to how economically connected low- and high-income people living in the area have historically been over at least a decade, per that data. The dataset does not include scores for about 180 of the 3,000 or so counties in the U.S.
The research attempts to fill in the gaps of previous efforts to study American economic mobility that did not consider a person's vast social networks nor their importance in creating better lives for themselves and their children.
It turns out the ability to cultivate friendships linking people of different socioeconomic backgrounds with one another is the strongest factor in determining whether a child can surpass the earning potential of their parents, Harvard researchers found. They call this economic connectedness.
Read on to find out where economic connectedness is strongest in your state.
#50. Gaston County
- Median Income: $56,819
- Population: 226,097
--- 74.2% white
--- 17.1% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.7% Asian
#49. Lee County
- Median Income: $57,674
- Population: 62,676
--- 70.9% white
--- 19.2% Black
--- 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.2% Asian
#48. Ashe County
- Median Income: $43,938
- Population: 26,598
--- 95.8% white
--- 0.9% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#47. Alexander County
- Median Income: $55,041
- Population: 36,491
--- 87.7% white
--- 5.1% Black
--- 0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.1% Asian
#46. Pitt County
- Median Income: $50,422
- Population: 170,600
--- 55.3% white
--- 35.2% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.7% Asian
#45. Chatham County
- Median Income: $76,791
- Population: 75,070
--- 76.6% white
--- 11.4% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.6% Asian
#44. Forsyth County
- Median Income: $56,830
- Population: 380,583
--- 62.4% white
--- 25.9% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.4% Asian
#43. Catawba County
- Median Income: $57,840
- Population: 159,852
--- 77.5% white
--- 8.1% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 4.5% Asian
#42. Stokes County
- Median Income: $52,637
- Population: 44,588
--- 92.2% white
--- 3.9% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.4% Asian
#41. Haywood County
- Median Income: $52,063
- Population: 61,695
--- 93.4% white
--- 0.7% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#40. Rowan County
- Median Income: $53,600
- Population: 145,784
--- 75.1% white
--- 16.2% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.1% Asian
#39. Pamlico County
- Median Income: $52,124
- Population: 12,293
--- 76.1% white
--- 18.9% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#38. Guilford County
- Median Income: $58,646
- Population: 537,113
--- 52.5% white
--- 34.4% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 5.2% Asian
#37. Pasquotank County
- Median Income: $56,510
- Population: 40,240
--- 57.1% white
--- 36.3% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.2% Asian
#36. Perquimans County
- Median Income: $53,138
- Population: 13,002
--- 72.4% white
--- 22.8% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#35. Hoke County
- Median Income: $53,456
- Population: 52,169
--- 43.4% white
--- 33.2% Black
--- 7.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.5% Asian
#34. Jones County
- Median Income: $42,401
- Population: 9,326
--- 62.3% white
--- 27.8% Black
--- 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#33. Clay County
- Median Income: $47,155
- Population: 10,997
--- 93.8% white
--- 2.4% Black
--- 1.7% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#32. Cumberland County
- Median Income: $50,746
- Population: 333,582
--- 46.6% white
--- 37.2% Black
--- 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.5% Asian
#31. Jackson County
- Median Income: $47,989
- Population: 42,983
--- 81.2% white
--- 2.1% Black
--- 7.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1% Asian
#30. Harnett County
- Median Income: $59,676
- Population: 133,074
--- 65.4% white
--- 21.2% Black
--- 1.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#29. Mecklenburg County
- Median Income: $73,124
- Population: 1,100,984
--- 49.9% white
--- 31.4% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 6% Asian
#28. Henderson County
- Median Income: $59,928
- Population: 115,613
--- 88.5% white
--- 3.4% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.4% Asian
#27. Davie County
- Median Income: $64,657
- Population: 42,543
--- 86.8% white
--- 4.6% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#26. Johnston County
- Median Income: $66,026
- Population: 211,320
--- 72.5% white
--- 16.2% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#25. Stanly County
- Median Income: $56,462
- Population: 62,148
--- 82.8% white
--- 11.7% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.8% Asian
#24. Transylvania County
- Median Income: $57,830
- Population: 32,979
--- 90.8% white
--- 4.4% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.1% Asian
#23. Brunswick County
- Median Income: $64,400
- Population: 133,789
--- 83.4% white
--- 9.1% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#22. Durham County
- Median Income: $67,000
- Population: 320,146
--- 48.9% white
--- 35.2% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 4.9% Asian
#21. Craven County
- Median Income: $56,325
- Population: 101,405
--- 69.4% white
--- 21.4% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.6% Asian
#20. Pender County
- Median Income: $65,681
- Population: 59,964
--- 76.6% white
--- 13.5% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#19. Cabarrus County
- Median Income: $75,765
- Population: 221,200
--- 67.6% white
--- 19.3% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 4.6% Asian
#18. Avery County
- Median Income: $46,383
- Population: 17,747
--- 90.2% white
--- 4.1% Black
--- 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#17. Lincoln County
- Median Income: $65,399
- Population: 85,670
--- 87.8% white
--- 5% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.8% Asian
#16. Polk County
- Median Income: $55,058
- Population: 19,413
--- 90.6% white
--- 4.8% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#15. Iredell County
- Median Income: $66,824
- Population: 183,965
--- 78.6% white
--- 11.9% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.4% Asian
#14. Gates County
- Median Income: $51,599
- Population: 10,584
--- 63% white
--- 30% Black
--- 1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.2% Asian
#13. Franklin County
- Median Income: $62,332
- Population: 67,598
--- 65.9% white
--- 23.7% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#12. Union County
- Median Income: $88,465
- Population: 235,699
--- 76.6% white
--- 11.4% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 3.5% Asian
#11. Moore County
- Median Income: $67,440
- Population: 98,618
--- 79.4% white
--- 10.7% Black
--- 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.1% Asian
#10. Carteret County
- Median Income: $61,805
- Population: 67,944
--- 88.5% white
--- 4.4% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#9. Buncombe County
- Median Income: $59,699
- Population: 266,981
--- 86.4% white
--- 5.8% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.2% Asian
#8. New Hanover County
- Median Income: $62,362
- Population: 225,175
--- 79.6% white
--- 12.6% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#7. Dare County
- Median Income: $69,500
- Population: 36,718
--- 88.9% white
--- 3.7% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#6. Wake County
- Median Income: $88,471
- Population: 1,112,883
--- 62.5% white
--- 19.9% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 7.5% Asian
#5. Onslow County
- Median Income: $54,732
- Population: 201,597
--- 72.1% white
--- 14.3% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2% Asian
#4. Currituck County
- Median Income: $79,416
- Population: 27,575
--- 87.6% white
--- 5.8% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#3. Camden County
- Median Income: $68,560
- Population: 10,353
--- 81.2% white
--- 10.6% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.9% Asian
#2. Watauga County
- Median Income: $48,786
- Population: 54,077
--- 93.2% white
--- 1.8% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#1. Orange County
- Median Income: $79,205
- Population: 147,376
--- 73.2% white
--- 11.1% Black
--- 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 7.9% Asian
This story features data reporting and writing by Dom DiFurio and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 50 states.