What is Asheville's Life Score?

Asheville scores 44.6/100 (grade C), rank #285 of 387. Signature composite at the 26th percentile; stamps LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · cost DEAR · wages MID.

What pulls Asheville up or down?

Strongest: childcare (61/100). Weakest: rent (27/100). Profile mark RENT-SQUEEZE; dimension gap 34.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Asheville, NC

Below-median composite Life Score — grade C, 26th percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

44.6
Life Score / 100: C
Grade (curved): #285
of 387 metros: 26%
composite percentile

View your shortlist

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Asheville is below-median composite Life Score — #285 of 387 (44.6/100, grade C, 26th percentile). Carried by childcare at 61/100; held back most by rent at 27/100.

26th
composite percentile: #285
of 387 peers: 35th
cost dimension percentile: 52nd
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · signature composite

Asheville: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates

Asheville sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#285 of 387, 44.6/100, 26th percentile). Stamps LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE; Rent at 27/100 is the main drag; Childcare (61/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/MID. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Asheville, NC ranks #285 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #251 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 96.5 (rent-RPP 93.4). BLS median salary $64,349, 172,630 jobs (Retail Salespersons, Registered Nurses, Cashiers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,567/mo (studio $1,227).

FBI UCR (NC): 365 violent, 1930 property/100K. NCES: 16.1:1 ratio, 7.6% charter. DOL infant childcare $9,487/yr. EPA: 42 Superfund sites (NC).

Where Asheville sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

45 26th percentile higher than 26% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 44.6 is built

Asheville's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 7.0 (16%) Wages 10.4 (23%) Rent 4.1 (9%) Safety 7.3 (16%) Schools 5.4 (12%) Childcare 6.1 (14%) Environment 4.3 (10%)

Dimension detail

How Asheville scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 35/100 (20%) Average

Wages 52/100 (20%) Average

Rent 27/100 (15%) Average

Safety 49/100 (15%) Average

Schools 54/100 (10%) Average

Childcare 61/100 (10%) Average

Environment 43/100 (10%) Average

Key Data Points

96.5

Cost Index (RPP)

$64,349

Avg Median Salary

$1,567

2BR Fair Market Rent

365

Violent Crime/100K (NC)

16.1:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$9,487

Infant Childcare/yr (NC)

Superfund Sites (NC)

172,630

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are NC state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Asheville With...

Asheville vs Greenville Compare → Asheville vs Winston Compare → Asheville vs Hickory Compare → Asheville vs Paducah Compare → Asheville vs Pocatello Compare → Asheville vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Asheville outranks 26% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#282	Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA	44.7	C
#283	Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC	44.7	C
#284	Corvallis, OR	44.8	C
#285	Asheville, NC	44.6	C
#286	Sherman-Denison, TX	44.6	C
#287	Syracuse, NY	44.6	C
#288	Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA	44.4	C

Quality vs. Affordability

Asheville, NC's quality rank (bottom 27% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 35% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.

Asheville, NC (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

NC Metro Scores

Greenville, NC A- 59.9 Winston-Salem, NC A- 59.6 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC B+ 56.6 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC B+ 56.3 Rocky Mount, NC B 54.3 Fayetteville, NC B 52.5

Read with Asheville

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Asheville (LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Sherman-Denison, TX

ABS(composite) peer at 44.6 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID.

Syracuse, NY

ABS(composite) peer at 44.6 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID.

Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC

ABS(composite) peer at 44.7 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID.

Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA

ABS(composite) peer at 44.7 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID.

Bangor, ME (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 35/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Cheyenne, WY (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 35/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Asheville, NC relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · DEAR/MID - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Asheville's bottom-third Life Score

Asheville scores 44.6/100 overall, but Childcare (60.9) and Rent (27.2) sit 33.7 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Childcare is the strongest of Asheville's seven dimensions (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Rent is the weakest (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
Greenville is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Greenville

A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Asheville Life Score 44.6/100 · signature composite · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr