The Durham MSA* is located in the heart of North Carolina’s booming Piedmont region and is home to 453,500 consumers. Located at the pinnacle of the Triangle, the Durham MSA boasts several major universities including nationally ranked Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University along with Durham Technical Community College.

Known as the "City of Medicine," Durham is a diversified center of biotechnology, education, medicine and research. Nearly one in three Durham residents is employed in a field related to health care. The Durham market has more than four times the national average of physicians, more than three times the national average of nurses and one of the largest concentrations of PhDs in the country. Durham-Orange consumers are also technically savvy: more than 85% have Internet access at home or work.

Durham is also home to the Research Triangle Park, the country's largest research park. Although named for the three Triangle communities - Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh - 75% of the land and 93% of RTP businesses are located in Durham County. ** RTP is home to more than 131 companies and research and development facilities including IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Nortell Networks, Cisco Systems, EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Park employs nearly 40,000 area residents.

Incomes and education levels are high. The average annual household income in the Durham-Orange market is $58,935 and 52% hold a college degree. (In Chapel Hill, 80.7%.)*** Durham leads the state in annual wages paid greater than $48,000.

Unemployment is low relative to both the state and nation. In 2004, the Durham MSA had the lowest unemployment rate of any of the state’s 14 MSAs.

Durham is the job magnet of the Triangle. Nearly 80,000 people commute to Durham for work each day from surrounding counties adding a tremendous amount of retail purchasing power to this already booming economy (source: Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.)

A rich multicultural arts and cultural center, the Durham MSA is home to the American Dance Festival, Broadway at Duke, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Durham Symphony and the Bull Durham Blues Festival among others. Museums include the acclaimed North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, the Ackland Museum and the Nasher Museum of Art.

Wearing the culinary crown of the Triangle, Durham has a thriving colony of renowned chefs and 300-plus restaurants, a number of which have received regional or national press in such publications as Bon Appetit, Wine Spectator, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Food and Wine, Gourmet and Esquire.

Durham draws the highest market share of non-resident day-trippers of the three Triangle counties for purposes other than employment. This affluence drove a total retail spending in excess of $4.6 billion in 2000-a total economic impact of nearly $12 billion. These dollars support a wide variety of retail and service providers - including health care, entertainment, personal technology and more.

Durham has won repeated accolades as a "best place to live and work," most recently in Money Magazine and Employment Review. In addition, it was ranked No. 1 on the Creativity Index among 274 similar-sized cities nationwide, and as the No. 2 Best City for Women to Live. Chapel Hill was ranked as the No. 1 Best Place to Live in the South (Money magazine), and the No. 2 on Arts and Entertainment channel’s list of "Top Ten Cities to Have it All." Carrboro has been ranked as one of the top five places to retire (U.S. News and World Report.)

The Durham-Orange region is accessed by Interstates 40 and 85 and by Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The North Carolina coast and mountain resorts are within a two-to-four hour drive.

*Durham MSA includes Durham, Orange, Chatham and Person counties
**RTP, NC 27709 is a Durham postal substation for the private, non-profit Research Triangle Park
***Experion/Applied Geographic Solutions