Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data
North Carolina City Spending Rankings
North Carolina has 21 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 3.6M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 66/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. North Carolina's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 66/100 (grade B). On the whole, North Carolina cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.
North Carolina Fiscal Profile
Across all covered North Carolina cities, the largest aggregate spending categories are parks at $4.9B and education at $4.9B. That mix reflects North Carolina's overall service-delivery model, in some states police and fire dominate; in others, education or roads take the largest aggregate share when cities operate their own school districts.
Healthiest and Most Stressed Cities
Top Fiscal Performers
Most Fiscally Stressed
All 21 Cities in North Carolina
Charlotte, NC
Pop. 875K
Raleigh, NC
Pop. 466K
Greensboro, NC
Pop. 297K
Durham, NC
Pop. 284K
Winston-Salem, NC
Pop. 250K
Fayetteville, NC
Pop. 209K
Cary, NC
Pop. 175K
Wilmington, NC
Pop. 117K
High Point, NC
Pop. 114K
Concord, NC
Pop. 105K
Asheville, NC
Pop. 94K
Greenville, NC
Pop. 88K
Gastonia, NC
Pop. 81K
Jacksonville, NC
Pop. 72K
Apex, NC
Pop. 66K
Huntersville, NC
Pop. 61K
Chapel Hill, NC
Pop. 59K
Burlington, NC
Pop. 57K
Rocky Mount, NC
Pop. 54K
Kannapolis, NC
Pop. 53K
Mooresville, NC
Pop. 50K
How These Rankings Are Calculated
City Fiscal Health Scores combine budget balance and reserves (25%), debt burden per capita (20%), pension funded ratio (20%), spending efficiency (15%), revenue diversity (10%), and three-year trend direction (10%). All inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district and county overlap. Pension data comes from the Public Plans Database. Best-practice weighting follows guidance from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cities in North Carolina are covered by CitySpend?
CitySpend covers 21 cities in North Carolina with 50,000 or more residents, totaling 3.6M in population. Smaller municipalities, towns, and unincorporated areas are excluded from the dataset.
What is North Carolina's average Fiscal Health Score?
North Carolina's 21 covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 66/100. The score combines budget balance and reserves, debt burden per capita, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and three-year trend direction. Each city is benchmarked against population peers, so a 200,000-resident city is compared to other mid-size cities, not against the largest cities in the country.
Where does North Carolina city spending data come from?
Every figure on this page is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, with population estimates from the American Community Survey. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district overlap. Federal grant flows come from USASpending.gov; pension data, where available, comes from the Public Plans Database.
Which North Carolina cities have the strongest fiscal health?
Wilmington (A), Winston-Salem (A), Kannapolis (A) rank among the top fiscal performers in North Carolina. Strong scores typically pair balanced budgets with low debt-per-capita and well-funded pensions. See the rankings below for the full list.
Which North Carolina cities are most fiscally stressed?
Gastonia (D), Chapel Hill (C), High Point (C) rank toward the bottom of the North Carolina fiscal health distribution. Common stress signals include pension underfunding, elevated debt service, and revenue concentration in a single tax source. A low score is a screening signal, not a verdict, always read the city's audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (ACFR) before drawing conclusions.
North Carolina has 21 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 3.6M in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 66/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. North Carolina's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 66/100 (grade B). On the whole, North Carolina cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. municipal and county government finances distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
The methodology behind every numeric value on this page is publicly documented on the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances portal and described in detail on this site’s methodology page. Refresh cadence varies by underlying series; the page surfaces the as-of date for each number so readers can trace any figure back to the source release.
For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. cities, counties, and states with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.