The North Carolina Department of Commerce annually ranks the state’s 100 counties based on economic well-being and assigns each a Tier designation. This Tier system is incorporated into various state programs to encourage economic activity in the less prosperous areas of the state.
The North Carolina Department of Commerce annually ranks the state’s 100 counties based on economic well-being and assigns each a Tier designation. This Tier system is incorporated into various state programs to encourage economic activity in the less prosperous areas of the state.
The 40 most distressed counties are designated as Tier 1, the next 40 as Tier 2 and the 20 least distressed as Tier 3.
County Tiers are calculated using four factors:
Average unemployment rate
Median household income
Percentage growth in population
Adjusted property tax base per capita
Beginning with the 2019 rankings, only these four factors determine final Tier rank. In previous years, additional ‘adjustment factors’ were also considered in the calculations. In 2018, the North Carolina General Assembly eliminated these adjustment factors from the Tier ranking methodology (S.L. 2018-5, Section 15.2.a).
Tier designations for 2019 for some southeastern North Carolina counties and average private sector wages are: Bladen l ($34,873), Brunswick 3 ($36,825), Columbus 1 ($33.736), Cumberland 1 ($35,434), Duplin 1 ($33,085), New Hanover 3 ($43,307), Pender 3 ($31,928), Robeson 1 ($31,166), Sampaon 1 ($35,632).
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