Adjust your scorecard: These are NC’s largest cities, new census count says
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North Carolina 2020 census data
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Wake may have surpassed Mecklenburg in population to become North Carolina’s largest county, but Charlotte remains the undisputed big dog among the state’s cities.
Charlotte’s population grew 19.6% over the last decade, to 874,579 in April 2020, according to a count released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Raleigh was a distant second, at 467,665, while Greensboro held at third, at 299,035.
The city of Durham, which grew more than 24% over the decade, surpassed Winston-Salem to become the state’s fourth largest city, at 283,506. Fayetteville remains sixth, just ahead of surging Cary, which still insists on calling itself a town even though it now has 174,721 residents.
Wilmington, High Point and Concord round out the top 10. Concord? Yes, the Charlotte suburb grew 33.1% to 105,240 residents, jumping ahead of Greenville and Asheville.
The census lists 733 communities in North Carolina, the smallest with as few as a couple dozen residents. Just over half of the places got bigger over the last decade, according to the census, but about 360 lost residents.
The biggest gainer, by percentage, was Blue Clay Farms, an unincorporated area of New Hanover County whose population quintupled to 168. Others that tripled in size or more were Frisco on the Outer Banks, Cashiers in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Holly Ridge, near Jacksonville.
Rolesville in Wake County was next on the list, growing 150% to 9,475 residents.
The biggest loser, in contrast, was Spencer Mountain in Gaston County, which officially went from 37 residents in 2010 to zero. Others that lost 50% or more of their populations include Kittrell in Franklin County, Dellview in Gaston County, Falkland in Pitt County and Seven Springs in Wayne County.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 2:50 PM.
