The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Tar Heel State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.
While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.
We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in North Carolina have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.
A recent study we published found that North Carolina is the 29th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 100.
But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in North Carolina are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.
#1 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Martin County, North Carolina
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#2 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Davidson County, North Carolina
Lexington is the county seat of Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 18,931. It is located in central North Carolina, 20 miles south of Winston-Salem. Major highways include I-85, I-85B, U.S. Route 29, U.S. Route 70, U.S. Route 52 and U.S. Route 64. Lexington is part of the Piedmont Triad region of the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#3 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Person County, North Carolina
Roxboro is a city in and the county seat of Person County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,362 at the 2010 census. The city is 30 miles north of Durham and is a part of the four-county Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 504,357 as of the 2010 Census. The Durham-Chapel Hill MSA is a part of the larger Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 1,749,525 as of the 2010 Census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#4 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
McDowell County, North Carolina
Marion is a city in McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of McDowell County. Founded in 1844, the city was named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Marion, the American Revolutionary War Hero whose talent in guerrilla warfare earned him the name -Swamp Fox-. Marion’s Main Street Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The population was 7,838 at the 2010 Census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#5 dumbest in North Carolina
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#6 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Johnston County, North Carolina
Selma is a town in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States. In 2010, the population was 6,073. Selma is part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area, and the Raleigh-Cary Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area has a population over 1.7 million residents, though the town of Selma is able to maintain its rural character. The Everitt P. Stevens House, located in Selma, was the site of the last Grand Review of the Confederate Army held on April 6, 1865, after its defeat at the Battle of Bentonville.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#7 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Rockingham County, North Carolina
Eden is a city in Rockingham County, North Carolina in the Piedmont area of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 15,527 at the 2010 census. From the late nineteenth century through much of the 20th, the city was a center of textile mills and manufacturing. The city was incorporated in 1967 through the consolidation of three separate towns: Leaksville, Spray, and Draper. The phone Area code is area code 336.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#8 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Vance County, North Carolina
Henderson, a city with a population of 15,368 at the 2010 census, is the county seat of Vance County, North Carolina, United States.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#9 dumbest in North Carolina
Located in
Randolph County, North Carolina
Thomasville is a city in Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 26,757 at the 2010 census. The city is notable for its furniture industry, as are its neighbors High Point and Lexington. This Piedmont Triad community was established in 1852 and hosts the state’s oldest festival, “Everybody’s Day”. Built around the local railway system, Thomasville is home to the oldest railroad depot in the state, just a few hundred feet from the city’s most notable landmark, “The Big Chair”.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#10 dumbest in North Carolina
Data | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is North Carolina’s statewide median.
On the map
Where North Carolina’s dumbest cities are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Tar Heel State
We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.
So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.
In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in North Carolina:
- % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
- % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)
We got the data from the U.S. Census 2020-2024 American Community Survey.
Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in North Carolina from dumbest to brightest.
For this ranking, we used every North Carolina city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the dumbest cities in North Carolina.
The full plate
Dumbest Cities In North Carolina For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | % Adult High School Dropout | % Highly Educated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williamston | 5,112 | 22.0% | 14.0% |
| 2 | Lexington | 19,690 | 20.0% | 13.0% |
| 3 | Roxboro | 8,182 | 20.0% | 14.0% |
| 4 | Marion | 7,579 | 20.0% | 15.0% |
| 5 | Sawmills | 5,042 | 18.0% | 13.0% |
| 6 | Selma | 6,817 | 17.0% | 13.0% |
| 7 | Eden | 15,356 | 16.0% | 11.0% |
| 8 | Henderson | 14,885 | 18.0% | 16.0% |
| 9 | Thomasville | 27,321 | 18.0% | 16.0% |
| 10 | Long View | 5,011 | 14.0% | 8.0% |
| 11 | Lumberton | 18,859 | 19.0% | 20.0% |
| 12 | Sanford | 31,478 | 21.0% | 22.0% |
| 13 | Kinston | 19,505 | 16.0% | 18.0% |
| 14 | Asheboro | 27,580 | 15.0% | 19.0% |
| 15 | Rockingham | 8,967 | 16.0% | 20.0% |
| 16 | Dallas | 6,104 | 16.0% | 21.0% |
| 17 | Laurinburg | 15,087 | 15.0% | 20.0% |
| 18 | Clinton | 8,304 | 18.0% | 23.0% |
| 19 | Trinity | 7,111 | 14.0% | 19.0% |
| 20 | Newton | 13,333 | 15.0% | 20.0% |
| 21 | Hamlet | 5,961 | 12.0% | 15.0% |
| 22 | Nashville | 5,729 | 13.0% | 16.0% |
| 23 | Oxford | 8,914 | 13.0% | 19.0% |
| 24 | Monroe | 36,759 | 17.0% | 24.0% |
| 25 | Lenoir | 18,299 | 14.0% | 21.0% |
| 26 | Butner | 8,065 | 21.0% | 27.0% |
| 27 | Mount Airy | 10,633 | 15.0% | 23.0% |
| 28 | Goldsboro | 34,383 | 13.0% | 21.0% |
| 29 | Kings Mountain | 12,039 | 12.0% | 17.0% |
| 30 | Morganton | 17,646 | 19.0% | 27.0% |
| 31 | Smithfield | 12,116 | 18.0% | 26.0% |
| 32 | Rocky Mount | 54,297 | 13.0% | 22.0% |
| 33 | Zebulon | 8,711 | 21.0% | 30.0% |
| 34 | Reidsville | 14,585 | 14.0% | 23.0% |
| 35 | Albemarle | 16,762 | 12.0% | 20.0% |
| 36 | Wilson | 48,370 | 15.0% | 25.0% |
| 37 | Conover | 8,580 | 14.0% | 24.0% |
| 38 | Archdale | 12,087 | 13.0% | 23.0% |
| 39 | Dunn | 8,559 | 12.0% | 21.0% |
| 40 | Lincolnton | 11,783 | 13.0% | 24.0% |
| 41 | Locust | 5,840 | 12.0% | 22.0% |
| 42 | Roanoke Rapids | 14,856 | 11.0% | 22.0% |
| 43 | Angier | 6,241 | 16.0% | 32.0% |
| 44 | Burlington | 59,610 | 15.0% | 29.0% |
| 45 | Statesville | 29,894 | 13.0% | 26.0% |
| 46 | Cherryville | 6,226 | 12.0% | 25.0% |
| 47 | Ayden | 5,150 | 9.0% | 22.0% |
| 48 | Gastonia | 82,884 | 12.0% | 26.0% |
| 49 | Tarboro | 10,770 | 12.0% | 25.0% |
| 50 | Graham | 18,048 | 11.0% | 25.0% |
| 51 | Washington | 9,726 | 10.0% | 24.0% |
| 52 | Mocksville | 6,068 | 10.0% | 25.0% |
| 53 | High Point | 116,245 | 13.0% | 33.0% |
| 54 | Salisbury | 35,825 | 12.0% | 30.0% |
| 55 | Havelock | 17,691 | 6.0% | 18.0% |
| 56 | Shelby | 22,100 | 10.0% | 27.0% |
| 57 | Spring Lake | 11,573 | 8.0% | 25.0% |
| 58 | Waynesville | 10,502 | 12.0% | 34.0% |
| 59 | Hope Mills | 17,939 | 7.0% | 24.0% |
| 60 | Kannapolis | 57,890 | 9.0% | 30.0% |
| 61 | Jacksonville | 71,279 | 7.0% | 26.0% |
| 62 | Hickory | 44,258 | 9.0% | 38.0% |
| 63 | Winston-Salem | 252,037 | 10.0% | 40.0% |
| 64 | King | 7,408 | 6.0% | 23.0% |
| 65 | Archer Lodge | 5,186 | 9.0% | 38.0% |
| 66 | Boiling Spring Lakes | 6,347 | 5.0% | 23.0% |
| 67 | Unionville | 6,954 | 6.0% | 26.0% |
| 68 | Mount Holly | 18,208 | 8.0% | 37.0% |
| 69 | Kernersville | 27,830 | 8.0% | 37.0% |
| 70 | New Bern | 32,734 | 7.0% | 29.0% |
| 71 | Woodfin | 8,048 | 11.0% | 45.0% |
| 72 | Mint Hill | 27,556 | 8.0% | 40.0% |
| 73 | Concord | 108,719 | 9.0% | 41.0% |
| 74 | Greensboro | 301,198 | 8.0% | 42.0% |
| 75 | Wesley Chapel | 9,090 | 11.0% | 48.0% |
| 76 | Wendell | 13,064 | 7.0% | 39.0% |
| 77 | Greenville | 92,857 | 7.0% | 39.0% |
| 78 | Charlotte | 903,844 | 10.0% | 48.0% |
| 79 | Indian Trail | 42,036 | 7.0% | 40.0% |
| 80 | Pineville | 11,055 | 8.0% | 45.0% |
| 81 | Aberdeen | 9,228 | 6.0% | 32.0% |
| 82 | Mebane | 19,538 | 7.0% | 41.0% |
| 83 | Clemmons | 21,871 | 9.0% | 49.0% |
| 84 | Stokesdale | 6,004 | 7.0% | 43.0% |
| 85 | Fayetteville | 210,815 | 5.0% | 30.0% |
| 86 | Kill Devil Hills | 7,761 | 7.0% | 44.0% |
| 87 | Hendersonville | 15,408 | 6.0% | 39.0% |
| 88 | Wilmington | 120,805 | 7.0% | 46.0% |
| 89 | Pleasant Garden | 5,060 | 4.0% | 30.0% |
| 90 | Winterville | 10,725 | 6.0% | 41.0% |
| 91 | Carolina Shores | 5,017 | 2.0% | 28.0% |
| 92 | Brevard | 7,897 | 6.0% | 43.0% |
| 93 | Durham | 291,467 | 8.0% | 57.0% |
| 94 | Clayton | 29,320 | 5.0% | 40.0% |
| 95 | Raleigh | 481,031 | 7.0% | 54.0% |
| 96 | Elon | 11,032 | 7.0% | 50.0% |
| 97 | Fletcher | 8,098 | 4.0% | 41.0% |
| 98 | Gibsonville | 9,467 | 2.0% | 37.0% |
| 99 | Mills River | 7,281 | 5.0% | 44.0% |
| 100 | Stallings | 16,886 | 6.0% | 53.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 136 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
If you’re measuring the locations in North Carolina where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.
The dumbest cities in North Carolina are Williamston, Lexington, Roxboro, Marion, Sawmills, Selma, Eden, Henderson, Thomasville, and Long View. Not sold on North Carolina? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
