Best PlacesGranville County, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Granville County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Granville County ranks 1,278th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on tree cover, and walkability ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Granville County
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Granville County
The parts of Granville County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Franklinton
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Creedmoor
Fewer homes sit empty and more households have young kids.
Butner
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Stem
Crime runs lower, though it is noisier.
Oxford
Tree cover is thinner and schools score lower.
Granville County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 6% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Granville County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Granville County ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 88% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 80% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 77% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 77% of counties
Where Granville County ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 11% of counties
- Short commute30.8 minutes each way, better than only 12% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of counties
- BikingBetter than only 20% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Granville County
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Granville County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,564, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Granville County's effective rate of 0.66%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Granville County
Granville County's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Granville County.
Who works in Granville County, and how
Work in Granville County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Granville County
Granville County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Granville County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Granville County growing, and who is moving in?
Granville County has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Raleigh, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Granville County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Granville County, month by month
Granville County sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 70° | 58° | 47° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Granville County
Raleigh-Durham International sits about 25 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 7.7 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Granville County
Schools across Granville County average a C+, better than 59% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Clarksville ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
- Mangum ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Helena ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wake Forest Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Cedar Creek MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
- G. C. Hawley MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Granville Early College HighA+ · 87% proficient
- Vance Co Early CollegeA+ · 80% proficient
- North Wake College And Career AcademyA · 79% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Granville County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Granville County measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Granville County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Granville County suits
Common questions about living in Granville County
Is Granville County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Granville County ranks 1,278th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on tree cover, state finances, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on walkability and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Granville County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $259,168. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $73,564 median income, cost of living beats 63% of counties.
Is Granville County safe?
Granville County is safer than 40% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $410 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Granville County?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 30. That works out to about 79 pleasant days a year, more than 37% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Granville County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Franklinton, Creedmoor, and Butner. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Granville County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Granville County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Granville County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Granville County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Granville County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Granville County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Granville County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Granville County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Granville County detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.