Raleigh

Raleigh exists because North Carolina was poor and terrified of staying that way. In the mid-1950s, the state's per capita income of $1,049 ranked among the lowest in the Southeast. The economy depended on tobacco, textiles, and furniture—industries that could move anywhere with cheaper labor. Governor Luther Hodges and business leaders diagnosed the problem: the state's three research universities—NC State, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill—produced graduates who promptly left for jobs elsewhere.

The solution was counterintuitive: build a research park in the pine forests between the three universities, 7,000 acres of planned collaboration where companies could tap academic talent and professors could commercialize discoveries. Research Triangle Park opened in 1959, and for years it struggled. The breakthrough came when IBM arrived in 1965, followed by pharmaceutical giants who found the combination of land, talent, and low costs irresistible.

The original problem was brain drain; RTP solved it by creating reasons to stay. Today the park hosts over 375 companies employing 55,000 people directly and generating $25.1 billion in annual economic value—3.5% of North Carolina's entire GDP. Biogen, GSK, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer run major operations here. The Triangle region now has 840 life science companies, the third-largest concentration in America behind Boston and the Bay Area. Per capita income, once one of the nation's lowest, now exceeds both state and national averages.

Raleigh itself ranks as the second-fastest-growing major U.S. city, expanding 19.84% as of early 2025. North Carolina has sweetened the deal by cutting corporate taxes to 2.25%—with plans to eliminate them entirely by 2030. By 2026, Raleigh bets that the same formula of universities plus industry plus low taxes that cured 1950s poverty will capture the next wave of pharma manufacturing. The park that stopped brain drain now causes it elsewhere.