Largest Cities in North Carolina: Ranked by Population

The largest city in North Carolina in our data is Charlotte, NC, with an estimated 1,512,923 people, followed by Raleigh, NC (1,038,738) and Durham, NC (424,700). This list ranks the top 50 places among the 162 North Carolina communities with at least 5,000 residents.

What are the top 50 in North Carolina?

How big are the largest cities in North Carolina?

Of the 162 places with pages, 16 have more than 100,000 residents, 32 have between 25,000 and 100,000, and 114 have fewer than 25,000. The median place has about 15,748 people. The ten largest places account for about 59% of the combined population of all pages, which shows how concentrated the state's population is across communities. Wake County contributes 8 of the top 50.

Which counties do the top 50 belong to?

The 50 places on this list are spread across 33 counties of North Carolina. Wake County has 8 (Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Garner, Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville); Mecklenburg County has 5 (Charlotte, Huntersville, Matthews, Cornelius, Mint Hill); Forsyth County has 2 (Winston-Salem, Kernersville). Counties with several entries are usually centers of a metropolitan area, where one large city is surrounded by many suburbs that each pass the 5,000-resident threshold.

How does North Carolina compare with the rest of the country?

The median North Carolina place with a page has about 15,748 residents, compared with about 13,459 nationwide, so the state's typical community is larger than the national typical place. Charlotte, NC ranks 38th among all US places by estimated population in our data. The state has 733 communities in total, of which 162 reach 5,000 residents. See the national ranking of the largest cities for comparison.

Quick answers about North Carolina cities

• Which is the largest city in North Carolina? Charlotte (1,512,923 people).
• How many North Carolina cities have more than 100,000 people? 16 in our data.
• How many have 25,000 to 100,000? 32.
• What is the typical size? About 15,748 residents for a place with a page.

How is this ranking made?

The data comes from the SimpleMaps US Cities Database, which gives each place an estimated population and a density in people per square kilometer. We convert density to people per square mile and rank the places with at least 5,000 residents. Boundaries matter: a city that includes large parks or farmland scores lower on density than a compact city of the same size, and population estimates can include areas that share a city's ZIP codes. Read why population figures differ and how density is calculated before you quote a number.

Where to go next

Rankings use dataset estimates, not official counts.