Carrington is a city in Foster County, North Dakota. It has 2,168 residents. Carrington, North Dakota has a quality-of-life score of 95 out of 100 (very high), ranking #812 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within North Dakota it ranks #7 of 56 cities and towns. It ranks best on pharmacies (high), mammography screening (high) and dentists (high). It ranks worst on public EV charging ports (low), gyms and fitness centers (low) and distance to an airport (high).
95Very high
Quality-of-life score
#812 of 15,651 cities and towns
North Dakota
#7 of 56 in ND
Population
2,168 (2020-2024)
Land area
2 mi²
Density
914.4 /mi²
FIPS code
3812340
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 71 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety99#122/15,637
Economy68#4,932/15,631
Housing95#803/14,977
Health64#5,567/15,609
Healthcare57#6,653/15,650
Environment97#415/15,453
Education85#2,365/15,649
Infrastructure51#7,605/15,650
Community96#573/15,651
Leisure & amenities85#2,294/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Carrington, North Dakota ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Foster County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Carrington, North Dakota five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Carrington, North Dakota in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Carrington is mostly in Foster County.
Over about five years, Carrington, North Dakota improved on 2 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 8 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved2
Broadband+14 points76.2% → 90.4%
Broadband subscriptions
76.2% → 90.4%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+14 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±7.9 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 31 → 46 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 77% of cities and towns
Household income+41%$54,839 → $77,171
Median household income
$54,839 → $77,1712015-2019 → 2020-2024
+41%Beyond the margin of error (±$12,819)
Standing among cities and towns: 48 → 55 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 75% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 10 measures
Change of every measure of Carrington, North Dakota between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
11.3 min2015-2019
11.4 min2020-2024
+0.1 min
Within the margin of error
46%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.7%2015-2019
32.2%2020-2024
+5.5 points
Within the margin of error
71%
Broadband subscriptions
76.2%2015-2019
90.4%2020-2024
+14 points
Improved
77%
Effective property tax rate
1.32%2015-2019
0.86%2020-2024
−0.5 points
Within the margin of error
88%
High school diploma or higher
89.7%2015-2019
92.4%2020-2024
+2.7 points
Within the margin of error
66%
Home price to income ratio
2.5×2015-2019
2.0×2020-2024
−0.6×
Within the margin of error
95%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4082015-2019
0.4362020-2024
+0.028
Within the margin of error
28%
Median household income
$54,8392015-2019
$77,1712020-2024
+41%
Improved
75%
Poverty rate
8.5%2015-2019
9.7%2020-2024
+1.2 points
Within the margin of error
32%
Rent-burdened households
34.3%2015-2019
49.0%2020-2024
+15 points
Within the margin of error
15%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Carrington, North Dakota itself moved +2.5 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Carrington, North Dakota is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Foster County, the county holding most of Carrington's residents.
Foster County has 138 employer establishments, 417 for every 10,000 residents (1.68× the US rate of 248; 1.29× North Dakota's), with 1,421 paid employees at an average annual pay of $55,569. The Census Bureau also counts 285 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
138
285 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
417
US 248 · North Dakota 323
Paid employees
1,421
Average annual pay
$55,569
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Foster County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 3,308 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
