Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina

It should not come as a surprise that Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill has earned the No. 1 spot on our list of best places to live and work for the second year in a row. This is a place that 1.2 million people are content to call home, and for so many good reasons. The area offers a great quality of life, a low crime rate, affordable housing, top-notch educational institutions, some of the best healthcare facilities in the world, a diverse industry base, and an environment in which it is ideal to raise a family. What more could anyone ask for?

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, often referred to as the Triangle, has a thriving business sector. The area is anchored by one of the nation's largest research parks and three nationally renowned research universities. Industry giants in pharmaceuticals, computer software, telecommunications, and biotechnology call the Triangle home. Having recently celebrated its 40th birthday, Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the premier address for relocating and expanding companies that want access to technology-transfer opportunities made possible by the Park's close ties to Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. RTP is the largest planned research park in the United States, consisting of some 45,000 employees on 7,000 acres. Some of the most notable tenants include Cisco Systems, EPA, Ericsson, IBM and Nortel.

The industry base here is quite diverse. Manufacturing, for instance, accounts for 12 percent of the industry base, employing approximately 80,000 people. Information technology has played a major role in the Triangle's development and success since the early 1960s. Today, the Raleigh-Durham area is ranked 20th in the country for its concentration of high-tech personnel.

Healthcare is extremely important to those who live and work in the Triangle. Two of the nation's top teaching and research hospitals are located here. Known as the "City of Medicine," nearly one in three people in Durham's work force is in a medical or healthcare-related field. Chapel Hill is also a strong center of medicine, with UNC hospitals, while Raleigh and Wake County offer several well-respected facilities, including Rex Healthcare and Wake Medical Center.

Residents in the Triangle have many opportunities to enjoy the area's beauty. Centrally located between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the Outer Banks and Atlantic Coast to the east, the climate here is pleasant year-round. There is also plenty to see and do: theater productions, art museums and great collegiate sporting events keep everyone busy.

KEY EMPLOYERS: State of North Carolina; International Business Machines (IBM); Wake County Public School System; North Carolina State University; GlaxoSmithKline, Inc.; WakeMed; Nortel, Inc.; Rex Healthcare; SAS Institute, Inc.; Progress Energy; Wake County; Hansen Aggregates; City of Raleigh; Cisco Systems; Waste Industries; WorldCom; Dorothea Dix Hospital; Research Triangle Institute; Verizon; First Citizens Bank & Trust Company; Longistics; Wachovia Corporation; Food Lion Stores; Kroger Stores; Invensys/Secure Power; United Parcel Service; The Capital Area YMCA, Inc.; U.S. EPA Environmental Research Center; Harris Teeter Stores; American Airlines Reservation Center; Ericsson, Inc.; Keebler, Inc.; The News & Observer Publishing Company; TriArc Food Systems/Bojangle's Restaurants; Wal-Mart; Freight Handlers; KMart Stores; WinnDixie Stores; Golden Corral Corporation; Nationwide Insurance Company; Wake Technical Community College