Raleigh named top city attracting families
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Forbes.com ranks Raleigh as the number one destination in America for raising a family.
Demographer Wendell Cox crunched the data on the changes in the number of 5-to 14-year-olds since 2000 in the nation's 52 largest metropolitan statistical areas in order to identify the parts of the country where new families are being formed most rapidly.
"We picked this age range because it encompasses when parents often move due to such issues as school quality, the cost of housing and long-term economic security," Forbes.com contributor Joel Kotkin wrote. "A toddler can do quite well in a small apartment, but when it's time to go to school, or if the parents decide to have a second or a third child, many parents are forced to make what are often difficult and long-lasting choices about where to live."
According to data, the City of Oaks is even more attractive to parents because of Raleigh's strong economy.
The number of children in the Raleigh metro area between the ages of 5 and 14 grew by 63,600 from 2000-13, or 55.7 percent -- roughly 10 times the national growth rate of 0.5 percent for that demographic.
The same combination of affordable housing and economic growth helped No. 4 Charlotte, where there were 82,100 more children in 2013 than in 2000, and growth of 32.9 percent.
