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Chapel Hill may be small, but it's certainly mighty. As part of the Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill Research Triangle, Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina, a large research industry, and a populace focused on education and culture.

As a college town and part of a region that has the highest number of Ph.D-holders per capita in the country, Capitol Hill is both educated and fairly liberal. The small town of just over 50,000 makes public education a top priority and is widely known for the high quality of its school system, with East Chapel Hill High and Chapel Hill High both recently ranking amongst Newsweek magazine's top 100 schools in the country.

Along with its neighbor town, Carrboro, Chapel Hill also has a vibrant cultural and music scene. The town is home to record labels like Merge Records (The Arcade Fire) and Yep Roc (Billy Brag) alongside popular artists like James Taylor and Ben Folds, who began his career in the small but bustling city.

Overall, the city is known for a friendly attitude, great restaurants, an abundance of coffee shops and independent retailers along with a fantastic spirit that exudes itself from the myriad of murals throughout the city to events like its massively popular and somewhat quirky annual Halloween street party. The smallest of the three Research Triangle cities, Chapel Hill does its best to stand out.

Basic Chapel Hill Demographic Stats:*
*based on 2000 census

Population: 48, 715

Racial Make-up: White (77.95%), Black or African American (11.42%), Asian (7.18%), Pacific Islander (1.16%), Hispanic or Latino (3.21%) Native American (0.42%), and just over 3% reporting from other or a mixed background.

Median Income: Household - $39, 410. Family - $88, 200.

Median Age: 24

Home Ownership Rate: 42.9%

Crime: Violent crime rate (as reported by the FBI in 2003): 4 per 1,000. Number of homicides and murders: 0.

Conclusion: Chapel Hill is a great place to live for nearly anyone.