What is Wilmington's Life Score?

Wilmington scores 45.9/100 (grade C+), rank #258 of 387. Signature composite at the 33rd percentile; stamps LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · cost DEAR · wages MID.

What pulls Wilmington up or down?

Strongest: schools (59/100). Weakest: rent (36/100). Profile mark SCHOOL-STRONG; dimension gap 23.

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

Wilmington, NC

Below-median composite Life Score — grade C+, 33rd percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

45.9
Life Score / 100: C+
Grade (curved): #258
of 387 metros: 33%
composite percentile

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Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

Wilmington is below-median composite Life Score — #258 of 387 (45.9/100, grade C+, 33rd percentile). Carried by schools at 59/100; held back most by rent at 36/100.

33rd
composite percentile: #258
of 387 peers: 36th
cost dimension percentile: 51st
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · signature composite

Wilmington: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates

Wilmington sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#258 of 387, 45.9/100, 33rd percentile). Stamps LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG; Rent at 36/100 is the main drag; Schools (59/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/MID. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Wilmington, NC ranks #258 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #247 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 96.4 (rent-RPP 93.2). BLS median salary $64,296, 183,460 jobs (Retail Salespersons, Fast Food and Counter Workers, Registered Nurses). HUD 2BR FMR $1,426/mo (studio $1,242).

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 Wilmington sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

46 33rd percentile higher than 33% 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 45.9 is built

Wilmington's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 7.3 (16%) Wages 10.3 (22%) Rent 5.4 (12%) Safety 6.8 (15%) Schools 5.9 (13%) Childcare 5.7 (12%) Environment 4.6 (10%)

Dimension detail

How Wilmington scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 36/100 (20%) Average

Wages 51/100 (20%) Average

Rent 36/100 (15%) Average

Safety 45/100 (15%) Average

Schools 59/100 (10%) Average

Childcare 57/100 (10%) Average

Environment 46/100 (10%) Average

Key Data Points

96.4

Cost Index (RPP)

$64,296

Avg Median Salary

$1,426

2BR Fair Market Rent

365

Violent Crime/100K (NC)

16.1:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$9,487

Infant Childcare/yr (NC)

Superfund Sites (NC)

183,460

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 Wilmington With...

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

Ranking Context

Wilmington outranks 33% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#255	Monroe, MI	46.0	C+
#256	Lewiston-Auburn, ME	46.0	C+
#257	Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL	46.0	C+
#258	Wilmington, NC	45.9	C+
#259	Grand Junction, CO	45.9	C+
#260	Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA	45.9	C+
#261	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	45.9	C+

Quality vs. Affordability

Wilmington, NC's quality rank (bottom 34% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 36% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.

Wilmington, 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 Wilmington

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Wilmington (LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · DEAR/MID), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Grand Junction, CO

ABS(composite) peer at 45.9 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C+ vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · DEAR/MID.

Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA

ABS(composite) peer at 45.9 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C+ vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · DEAR/MID.

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

ABS(composite) peer at 45.9 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C+ vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · DEAR/MID.

Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL

ABS(composite) peer at 46.0 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C+ vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · DEAR/MID.

Kankakee, IL (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 37/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Missoula, MT (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 36/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Wilmington, NC relocation guide

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

Using Wilmington's bottom-third Life Score

Wilmington scores 45.9/100 overall, but Schools (58.5) and Rent (35.8) sit 22.8 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Schools is the strongest of Wilmington'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. Wilmington Life Score 45.9/100 · 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