Best PlacesPerquimans County, NC Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Perquimans 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Perquimans County ranks 1,696th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Walkability pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on quiet.

#1,696
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Perquimans County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Perquimans County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Perquimans County's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Perquimans County with other counties.

Where Perquimans County ranks high

  • QuietBetter than 88% of counties
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than 86% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than 86% of counties

Where Perquimans County ranks low

  • WalkabilityBetter than only 3% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 7% of counties
  • Short commute32.0 minutes each way, better than only 9% of counties
  • BikingBetter than only 10% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Perquimans County

A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Perquimans County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,316, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$63,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,468
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $247,493 home
Median rent
$986
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,262
Property tax$124
Homeowners insurance$82

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 Perquimans County's effective rate of 0.60%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Perquimans County

Perquimans County runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
51
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
31%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3415%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6419%
65 and older31%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Perquimans County.


Who works in Perquimans County, and how

Work in Perquimans County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
13%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.9%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Retail trade10%
Hospitality & food9%
Public administration9%
Manufacturing9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 86%
  • Work from home 13%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Perquimans County

Perquimans County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Perquimans County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
39
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 30.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 12% of counties

Is Perquimans County growing, and who is moving in?

Perquimans County has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Virginia Beach, VA.

Population growth
-1%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
13,460
down from 13,538
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Virginia Beach, VA206 / yr
Richmond, VA61 / yr
Charleston, WV59 / yr
Pasquotank County, NC48 / yr
Sumter, SC42 / yr

Where people leaving Perquimans County go

Chowan County, NC183 / yr
Pasquotank County, NC138 / yr
Polk County, NC96 / yr
Virginia Beach, VA76 / yr
Akron, OH64 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Perquimans County, month by month

Perquimans County sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and September through November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January54°45°37°
April74°63°54°
July90°82°75°
October76°66°57°

Flying in and out of Perquimans County

The nearest airport, Norfolk International, is about 51 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Richmond International, about 104 miles away.

Nearest airport
ORF
Norfolk International, about 51 miles
Airport size
Small hub
64th-busiest in the US, 71 nonstop destinations
Average drive
73 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Perquimans County

Schools across Perquimans County average a B, better than 78% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Perquimans County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Perquimans 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 Perquimans County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Perquimans County

Is Perquimans County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Perquimans County ranks 1,696th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on quiet, civic engagement, and state finances, and lowest on walkability and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Perquimans County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $247,493. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $70,316 median income, cost of living beats 57% of counties.

Is Perquimans County safe?

Perquimans County is safer than 54% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $378 per resident a year.


Compare Perquimans County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Perquimans County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Perquimans 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.

Perquimans County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Perquimans County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Perquimans County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Perquimans County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Perquimans County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Perquimans County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.