Raleigh and Charlotte both landed in the top five of a new ranking of the nation’s largest metro areas, but their results differed across measures of people and housing, work and earnings, and business and the economy. Raleigh ranked No. 2 overall and Charlotte No. 4, placing two North Carolina metros among the leaders in a ranking of growth.
LendingTree evaluated the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas using federal data comparing 2023 with 2024, according to National Mortgage Professional. The analysis scored each metro in three categories: people and housing, work and earnings, and business and economy. Raleigh’s overall result reflected especially strong performance in the labor-market category, where it ranked first.
Raleigh's Workforce and Paychecks Both Climbed
Raleigh's workforce grew 4.4% between 2023 and 2024, one of the strongest gains among the metros LendingTree studied. Median earnings in the area rose 6.5% over that same stretch, per the same analysis, a combination that helped push Raleigh into the top tier of the work-and-earnings rankings nationally.
As reported by the News & Observer, LendingTree chief consumer finance analyst Matt Schulz said Raleigh’s population and workforce are both expanding. He also cautioned that rapid growth can bring increased demand and competition, according to the outlet.
Charlotte's Mixed Bag: Housing Gains, Business Slowdown
Charlotte’s route to No. 4 was more balanced across the ranking’s measures. It placed among the top 10 metros for both work and earnings and people and housing, according to the News & Observer’s reporting on the LendingTree data. Its business-and-economy result was weaker: Charlotte ranked No. 13 in that category, alongside a 3.3% year-over-year decline in new business applications.
That one-year decline is one component of the business-and-economy score, not by itself a measure of the region’s overall business climate. The ranking’s categories capture different aspects of growth, so strength in population and employment can coexist with a weaker result for new applications.
A Broader Southern Pattern
The results also reflect a wider regional pattern: eight of LendingTree’s 10 leading growth markets were in the South. The analysis pointed to population gains in parts of the region and an environment it described as attractive to businesses.
Austin, Texas, topped the overall list, ranking as LendingTree's No. 1 boomtown for the third consecutive year. Seattle placed third overall and led the business-and-economy category, while Jacksonville posted the single largest workforce increase in the entire study, at 5.6%, according to National Mortgage Professional's write-up of the findings.
What separate data can—and can’t—show
A separate population measure offers regional context, not a direct comparison of housing supply. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2025 population estimates found that nine of the 10 fastest-growing counties with populations of at least 20,000 were in the South from 2024 to 2025. That county-level finding does not show how housing construction compared with population growth in the Raleigh-Cary and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metros, or how renter cost burdens differed.
Later labor-market and business figures measure different things from LendingTree’s 2023–2024 scores. The North Carolina Department of Commerce reported a preliminary, not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 3.5% for the Raleigh metro in August 2025; the 4.1% rate was for Mecklenburg County. Those rates do not identify the metros’ industry mix or compare job growth. Separately, WRAL reported Census data showing about 180,000 micro businesses statewide, 10% more than in 2016—a statewide measure that does not establish the direction of Charlotte’s one-year change in new business applications.
The ranking therefore offers two distinct snapshots of North Carolina growth: Raleigh led on work and earnings, while Charlotte combined strong people-and-housing and labor-market results with a lower business-and-economy score. Those category results describe the 2023–2024 comparison and do not, on their own, establish a longer-term trend.
