Research Triangle's Best School ZIP Codes, Ranked (2026)
By Sharon Ben-Moshe · July 30, 2026
Morrisville's 27560 posts the Triangle's top school score at 83 out of 100, but Cary and Apex score higher overall thanks to stronger crime scores. See NeighborScore's full NCES-based Research Triangle ranking.
Morrisville, North Carolina (ZIP 27560) posts the Research Triangle's highest school score at 83 out of 100, according to NCES EdFacts math and reading proficiency data. But Morrisville isn't the Triangle's top-scoring ZIP overall — Cary's 27519 and three other Wake County suburbs outrank it, because NeighborScore's crime score carries more weight in the overall composite.
Why the Best Schools and the Best Overall Score Are Different ZIP Codes
NeighborScore's overall rating weights crime at 53% and school quality at 47%, with affordability shown separately as context rather than folded into the composite. Morrisville's 27560 leads on schools (83) but carries a crime score of 65, holding its overall score to 73. Cary (27519), Apex (27502), and Holly Springs (27540) all report crime scores of 95 — the top of NeighborScore's scale — which pushes their overall scores to 87, 84, and 84 respectively, even though their school scores (79, 71, 72) trail Morrisville's.
Wake County's crime scores come from FBI municipal-agency data, mapped ZIP by ZIP to 31 of its 32 scored ZIP codes — a genuine per-suburb resolution, not a county-wide average. School scores draw on the same per-ZIP resolution: Wake County shows 21 distinct school scores across those 32 ZIPs, meaning proficiency data is reported and scored individually for nearly every ZIP rather than inherited from a district-wide figure.
Research Triangle ZIP Codes Ranked by School Score
- Morrisville (27560): school 83, overall 73, crime 65, median price $515,000 — view the 27560 profile
- Cary (27519): school 79, overall 87, crime 95, median price $713,750 — view the 27519 profile
- Carrboro (27516): school 75, overall 70, crime 65, median price $625,000 — view the 27516 profile
- Holly Springs (27540): school 72, overall 84, crime 95, median price $600,000
- Apex (27502): school 71, overall 84, crime 95, median price $579,000
- Raleigh (27615): school 71, overall 68, crime 65, median price $550,000
What Buyers Should Weigh: Schools vs. Overall Score
Buyers optimizing purely for school quality should look at Morrisville (27560) and Carrboro (27516), the two highest school scorers in this group at 83 and 75. Buyers weighting safety more heavily — which drives the larger share of NeighborScore's composite — will find Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs score higher overall despite modestly lower school marks, because all three report the maximum 95/100 crime score.
It's worth noting NCES's underlying proficiency data dates to the SY 2020-21 school year — several years behind the most recent release — per NCES EdFacts. Treat these school scores as relative comparisons between Triangle ZIP codes, not a current measure of any single school's performance today.
Bottom Line
Morrisville's 27560 has the Research Triangle's strongest school data, scoring 83/100, but its 65/100 crime score keeps its overall NeighborScore at 73 — below Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs, which all pair a maximum 95 crime score with still-solid school scores in the high 60s to high 70s. Which ZIP wins depends on whether a buyer weighs school quality or safety more heavily, since NeighborScore's own composite leans 53% toward crime.