Table of Contents

• Population and area
  
• Geographic Information Sources
• North Carolina's Three Regions

Population and area

After the 2000 Census, North Carolina was ranked the 11th most populous state, with a resident population of 8,046,579. According to estimates for 2006, North Carolina had passed New Jersey and was 10th largest in population, with 8,856,505 residents (see Population Estimates and Projections from the North Carolina State Demographics branch of OSBM). The population grew by 21.4% from the 1990 total of 6,628,637. According to Census records, only 8 other states grew faster during the last decade (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, and Utah).

North Carolina consists of 48,843 square miles of land and 3,826 square miles of inland water. Our total area of 52,669 square miles ranks North Carolina twenty-ninth in area among the states. The Old North State lies on the Eastern Seaboard with half of the population of the United States living within a 500-mile radius of the state. The state's temperate climate has four distinct seasons and is highly acclaimed for its year-round living comforts. Rainfall is adequate and dispersed over the entire year.

Geographic Information Sources

There are several sources for North Carolina geographic information:

• North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NC CGIA)
  • Lead public agency for GIS in the state. CGIA offers data, products, and services, administers the state's corporate geographic database and staffs the GICC.
• NC OneMap
  • Comprehensive discovery and access to North Carolina’s geospatial data resources.
• North Carolina Atlas Revisited
  • Current information on patterns and trends in North Carolina. A companion website to The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a New Century, published in 2000.
• North Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council (NC GICC)
  • Creates policy and resolves technical issues related to North Carolina geographic information and GIS systems.
• Census Bureau Geography
  • Central location for information about Census geographies, the basis for data collection. For information on individual addresses, search: Advanced Geography Search

North Carolina's Three Regions

The state is divided into three distinct topographical regions (see map): the Coastal Plain (sometimes subdivided into an Inner Coastal Plain and Tidewater region), the Piedmont Plateau, and the Blue Ridge/Appalachian Mountains.

The Appalachian Mountains--including Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in Eastern North America (6,684 feet)-- add to the variety which is apparent in the state's topography. More than 200 mountains rise 5,000 feet or more. In this area, widely acclaimed for its beauty, tourism is an outstanding business. The valleys and some of the hillsides serve as small farms and apple orchards; and here and there are business enterprises, ranging from small craft shops to large paper and rayon manufacturing plants.

The Piedmont (meaning literally "foot of the mountain"), is home to a diverse mixture of agriculture, government, manufacturing, research, and technology development. The six largest cities in North Carolina, and eight of the top ten, are in this region of the state, the exceptions being Wilmington on the Coastal Plain and Asheville in the Appalachian Mountains. The southeastern section of the Piedmont is known as the Sandhills, and is known for its nationally famous golf courses and stables.

 *City boundaries often encompass portions of more than one county.  Counties in which the greatest proportion of the population resides are capitalized.

• The North Carolina Gazetteer
• The North Carolina Atlas: Portrait for a new century (2000)
• the North Carolina Atlas Revisited
• The State Data Center