North Carolina () is a
state in the
Southeastern region of the
United States. North Carolina is the
28th largest and
9th-most populous of the
50 United States. It is bordered by
Virginia to the north, the
Atlantic Ocean to the east,
Georgia and
South Carolina to the south, and
Tennessee to the west.
Raleigh is the state's
capital and
Charlotte is its largest city. The
Charlotte metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 2,569,213 in 2018, is the most-populous
metropolitan area in North Carolina, the
23rd-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after
New York City. The
Raleigh-Durham-Cary combined statistical area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the state, with an estimated population of 2,079,687 in 2019, and is home to the largest research park in the United States,
Research Triangle Park.
North Carolina was established as a
royal colony in 1729 and is one of the original
Thirteen Colonies. North Carolina is named in honor of King
Charles I of England who first formed the English colony, ''Carolus'' being Latin for "Charles". On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to
ratify the
United States Constitution. In the run-up to the
American Civil War, North Carolina declared its
secession from the
Union on May 20, 1861, becoming the 10th of eleven states to join the
Confederate States. Following the Civil War, the state was restored to the Union on July 4, 1868. On December 17, 1903,
Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully piloted the world's first controlled, sustained flight of a powered,
heavier-than-air aircraft at
Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina's
Outer Banks. North Carolina uses the slogan "First in Flight" on state
license plates to commemorate this achievement, alongside a newer alternative design bearing the slogan "First in Freedom" in reference to the
Mecklenburg Declaration and
Halifax Resolves.
North Carolina is defined by a wide range of elevations and landscapes. From west to east, North Carolina's elevation descends from the
Appalachian Mountains to the
Piedmont and
Atlantic coastal plain. North Carolina's
Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (2,037m) is the highest-point in North America east of the
Mississippi River. Most of the state falls in the
humid subtropical climate zone; however, the western, mountainous part of the state has a
subtropical highland climate.
History
Native Americans, lost colony, and permanent settlement

North Carolina was inhabited for at least ten thousand years by succeeding
prehistoric indigenous cultures. The
Hardaway Site saw major periods of occupation dating to 10,000 years BP. Before 200 AD, the people were building
earthwork platform mounds, which were used for ceremonial and religious purposes. Succeeding peoples, including those of the
South Appalachian Mississippian culture, established by 1000 AD in the
Piedmont and mountain region, continued to build this style of mounds. In contrast to some of the larger centers of the classic Mississippian culture (as noted below), in what became known as the western Carolinas, northeastern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee, most of the larger towns had only one central platform mound. The smaller settlements had none but developed close to the more prominent towns. This area became known as the homelands of the historic Cherokee people, who are believed to have migrated over time from the
Great Lakes area.
In the 500–700 years preceding European contact, the Mississippian culture built large, complex cities and maintained far-flung regional trading networks. Its largest city was
Cahokia, which had numerous mounds for different purposes, a highly stratified society, and was located in present-day southwestern Illinois near the Mississippi River. The Native polities of the Mississippian culture fell apart and reformed as new groups, such as the
Catawba, due to a series of destabilizing events known as the "Mississippian shatter zone". As described by anthropologist Robbie Ethridge, the Mississippian shatter zone was an area of great instability, in what is now the American South, caused by the instability of Mississippian chiefdoms, high mortality from new Eurasian diseases, construction of a global capitalistic economy based on trading of Native American slaves, and the emergence of Native "militaristic slaving societies".
Historically documented tribes in the North Carolina region include the
Carolina Algonquian-speaking tribes of the coastal areas, such as the
Chowanoke,
Roanoke,
Pamlico,
Machapunga,
Coree, and
Cape Fear Indians, who were the first encountered by the English; the
Iroquoian-speaking
Meherrin,
Cherokee, and
Tuscarora of the interior; and Southeastern
Siouan tribes, such as the
Cheraw,
Waxhaw,
Saponi,
Waccamaw, and
Catawba of the Piedmont.
In the late 16th century, the first Spanish
explorers traveling inland recorded meeting
Mississippian culture people at
Joara, a regional
chiefdom near what later developed as
Morganton. Records of
Hernando de Soto attested to his meeting with them in 1540. In 1567, Captain
Juan Pardo led an expedition to claim the area for the Spanish colony and to establish another route to reach silver mines in Mexico. Pardo made a winter base at Joara, which he renamed ''Cuenca''. His expedition built
Fort San Juan and left a contingent of 30 men there, while Pardo traveled further. His forces built and garrisoned five other forts. He returned by a different route to
Santa Elena on
Parris Island, South Carolina, then a center of
Spanish Florida. In the spring of 1568, natives killed all but one of the Spanish soldiers and burned the six forts in the interior, including the one at Fort San Juan. Although the Spanish never returned to the interior, this effort marked the first European attempt at colonization of the interior of what became the United States. A 16th-century journal by Pardo's scribe Bandera, and
archaeological findings since 1986 at Joara, have confirmed the settlement.
Anglo-European settlement
In 1584,
Elizabeth I granted a charter to
Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, for land in present-day North Carolina (then part of the territory of
Virginia). It was the second American territory which the English attempted to colonize. Raleigh established two colonies on the coast in the late 1580s, but both failed. The fate of the "
Lost Colony" of
Roanoke Island remains one of the most widely debated mysteries of American history.
Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in North America, was born on Roanoke Island on August 18, 1587;
Dare County is named for her.

As early as 1650, settlers from the Virginia colony had moved into the area of
Albemarle Sound. By 1663, King
Charles II of England granted a charter to start a new colony on the North American continent; this would generally establish North Carolina's borders. He named it ''Carolina'' in honor of his father,
CharlesI. By 1665, a second charter was issued to attempt to resolve territorial questions. In 1710, owing to disputes over governance, the Carolina colony began to split into North Carolina and
South Carolina. The latter became a crown colony in 1729.
Later in the 1700s, a series of
smallpox epidemics swept the South, causing high fatalities among the Native Americans, who had no
immunity to the new disease (it had become
endemic over centuries in Europe). According to the historian Russell Thornton, "The 1738 epidemic was said to have killed one-half of the
Cherokee, with other tribes of the area suffering equally."
Colonial period and Revolutionary War

After the Spanish in the 16th century, the first permanent European settlers of North Carolina were English colonists who migrated south from
Virginia. The latter had grown rapidly and land was less available.
Nathaniel Batts was documented as one of the first of these Virginian migrants. He settled south of the
Chowan River and east of the
Great Dismal Swamp in 1655. By 1663, this northeastern area of the
Province of Carolina, known as the
Albemarle Settlements, was undergoing full-scale English settlement. During the same period, the English monarch CharlesII gave the province to the
Lords Proprietors, a group of noblemen who had helped restore him to the throne in 1660. The new
Province of Carolina was named in honor and memory of his father, CharlesI (Latin: ''Carolus''). A large revolt happened in the state in 1711, known as
Cary's Rebellion. In 1712, North Carolina became a separate colony. Except for the
Earl Granville holdings, it became a royal colony seventeen years later.
[Lefler and Newsome, (1973).]
In June 1718, the pirate
Blackbeard ran his flagship, the ''
Queen Anne's Revenge'', aground at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, in present-day
Carteret County. After the grounding her crew and supplies were transferred to smaller ships. In November of 1718, after appealing to the governor of North Carolina, who promised safe-haven and a pardon, Blackbeard was killed in an ambush by troops from Virginia. In 1996 Intersal, Inc., a private firm, discovered the remains of a vessel likely to be the ''Queen Anne's Revenge'', which was added to the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places.
North Carolina became one of the English
Thirteen Colonies and with the territory of
South Carolina was originally known as the
Province of North Carolina. The northern and southern parts of the original province separated in 1729. Originally settled by small farmers, sometimes having a few slaves, who were oriented toward subsistence agriculture, the colony lacked large cities or towns.
Pirates menaced the coastal settlements, but by 1718 the pirates had been captured and killed. Growth was strong in the middle of the 18th century, as the economy attracted
Scots-Irish,
Quaker,
English and
German immigrants. A majority of the North Carolina colonists generally supported the
American Revolution, although there were a small number of
Loyalists. Loyalists in North Carolina were smaller in number than in some other colonies such as Georgia, South Carolina, Delaware, and New York.
During colonial times,
Edenton served as the state capital beginning in 1722, followed by
New Bern becoming the capital in 1766. Construction of
Tryon Palace, which served as the residence and offices of the provincial governor
William Tryon, began in 1767 and was completed in 1771. In 1788,
Raleigh was chosen as the site of the new capital, as its central location protected it from coastal attacks. Officially established in 1792 as both county seat and state capital, the city was named after Sir
Walter Raleigh, sponsor of
Roanoke, the "lost colony" on
Roanoke Island. The population of the colony more than quadrupled from 52,000 in 1740 to 270,000 in 1780 from high immigration from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, plus immigrants from abroad.
Differences in the settlement patterns of eastern and western North Carolina, or the
Tidewater and uplands, affected the political, economic, and social life of the state from the 18th until the 20th century. The Tidewater in eastern North Carolina was settled chiefly by immigrants from rural England and the
Scottish Highlands. The upcountry of western North Carolina was settled chiefly by
Scots-Irish, English, and
German Protestants, the so-called "
cohee". Arriving during the mid- to late 18th century, the Scots-Irish from what is today Northern Ireland were the largest non-English immigrant group before the Revolution; English indentured servants were overwhelmingly the largest immigrant group before the Revolution.
During the
American Revolutionary War, the English and Highland Scots of eastern North Carolina tended to remain loyal to the British Crown, because of longstanding business and personal connections with Great Britain. The English, Welsh, Scots-Irish, and German settlers of western North Carolina tended to favor American independence from Britain.
Most of the English colonists had arrived as
indentured servants, hiring themselves out as laborers for a fixed period to pay for their passage. In the early years the line between indentured servants and African
slaves or laborers was fluid. Some Africans were allowed to earn their freedom before slavery became a lifelong status. Most of the
free colored families formed in North Carolina before the Revolution were descended from unions or marriages between free white women and enslaved or free African or African-American men. Because the mothers were free, their children were born free. Many had migrated or were descendants of migrants from colonial Virginia. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in
Great Britain, planters imported more slaves, and the state's legal delineations between free and slave status tightened, effectively hardening the latter into a racial caste. The economy's growth and prosperity was based on slave labor, devoted primarily to the production of tobacco.
On April 12, 1776, the colony became the first to instruct its delegates to the
Continental Congress to vote for independence from the British Crown, through the
Halifax Resolves passed by the
North Carolina Provincial Congress. The date of this event is memorialized on the
state flag and
state seal. Throughout the Revolutionary War, fierce
guerrilla warfare erupted between bands of pro-independence and pro-British colonists. In some cases the war was also an excuse to settle private grudges and rivalries.
During the
Revolutionary War, North Carolina had around 7,800 men join the
Continental Army under General
George Washington; and an additional 10,000 served in local militia units under such leaders as General
Nathanael Greene. There was some military action, especially in 1780–81. Many Carolinian frontiersmen had moved west over the mountains, into the
Washington District (later known as
Tennessee), but in 1789, following the Revolution, the state was persuaded to relinquish its claim to the western lands. It ceded them to the national government so the
Northwest Territory could be organized and managed nationally.
A major American victory in the war took place at
King's Mountain along the North Carolina–South Carolina border; on October 7, 1780, a force of 1,000 mountain men from western North Carolina (including what is today the state of
Tennessee) and
southwest Virginia overwhelmed a force of some 1,000 British troops led by Major
Patrick Ferguson. Most of the soldiers fighting for the British side in this battle were Carolinians who had remained loyal to the Crown (they were called "Tories" or Loyalists). The American victory at Kings Mountain gave the advantage to colonists who favored American independence, and it prevented the British Army from recruiting new soldiers from the Tories.
The road to
Yorktown and America's independence from
Great Britain led through North Carolina. As the
British Army moved north from victories in
Charleston and
Camden, South Carolina, the Southern Division of the
Continental Army and local militia prepared to meet them. Following General
Daniel Morgan's victory over the British Cavalry Commander
Banastre Tarleton at the
Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, southern commander
Nathanael Greene led British Lord
Charles Cornwallis across the heartland of North Carolina, and away from the latter's base of supply in Charleston, South Carolina. This campaign is known as "The Race to the Dan" or "The Race for the River".
In the
Battle of Cowan's Ford, Cornwallis met resistance along the banks of the
Catawba River at Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781, in an attempt to engage General Morgan's forces during a tactical withdrawal. Morgan had moved to the northern part of the state to combine with General Greene's newly recruited forces. Generals Greene and Cornwallis finally met at the
Battle of Guilford Courthouse in present-day
Greensboro on March 15, 1781. Although the
British troops held the field at the end of the battle, their casualties at the hands of the numerically superior Continental Army were crippling. Following this "
Pyrrhic victory", Cornwallis chose to move to the Virginia coastline to get reinforcements, and to allow the
Royal Navy to protect his battered army. This decision would result in Cornwallis' eventual defeat at
Yorktown, Virginia, later in 1781. The Patriots' victory there guaranteed American independence. On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the twelfth state to ratify the
Constitution.
Antebellum period
After 1800, cotton and
tobacco became important export crops. The eastern half of the state, especially the
Tidewater region, developed a slave society based on a
plantation system and
slave labor. Besides slaves, there were a number of
free people of color in the state. Most were descendants from free African Americans who had migrated along with neighbors from
Virginia during the 18th century. The majority were the descendants of unions in the working classes between white women, indentured servants or free, and African men, indentured, slave or free. After the
Revolution,
Quakers and
Mennonites worked to persuade slaveholders to free their slaves. Some were inspired by their efforts and the language of the Revolution to arrange for
manumission of their slaves. The number of free people of color rose markedly in the first couple of decades after the Revolution. Many
free people of color migrated to the frontier, along with their European-American neighbors, where the social system was looser. By 1810, nearly three percent of the free population consisted of free people of color, who numbered slightly more than 10,000. The western areas were dominated by white families, especially Scots-Irish, who operated small subsistence farms. In the early national period, the state became a center of
Jeffersonian and
Jacksonian democracy, with a strong
Whig presence, especially in the western part of the state. After
Nat Turner's slave uprising in 1831, North Carolina and other southern states reduced the rights of free blacks. In 1835, the legislature withdrew their right to vote. Southern slave codes criminalized willful killing of a slave in most cases.
Planters owning large estates wielded significant political and socio-economic power in antebellum North Carolina. They placed their interests above those of the generally non-slave-holding "yeoman" farmers of North Carolina. In mid-century, the state's rural and commercial areas were connected by the construction of a wooden plank road, known as a "farmer's railroad", from
Fayetteville in the east to
Bethania (northwest of
Winston-Salem).
On October 25, 1836, construction began on the
Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad to connect the port city of
Wilmington with the state capital of
Raleigh. In 1840, the
state capitol building in Raleigh was completed, and still stands today.

In 1849, the North Carolina Railroad was created by act of the legislature to extend that railroad west to
Greensboro,
High Point, and
Charlotte. During the Civil War, the Wilmington-to-Raleigh stretch of the railroad would be vital to the Confederate war effort; supplies shipped into Wilmington would be moved by rail through Raleigh to the Confederate capital of
Richmond, Virginia.
While slaveholding was slightly less concentrated compared to other Southern states, according to the 1860 census, more than 330,000 people, or 33% of the population out of 992,622 people in total, were enslaved African Americans.
They lived and worked chiefly on plantations in the eastern
Tidewater region of the state. In addition, 30,463
free people of color lived in the state.
They were also mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal plain, especially at port cities such as Wilmington and New Bern, where a variety of jobs were available. The decades of tensions over issues of slavery would be the main cause of the Civil War.
American Civil War

In 1860, North Carolina was a slave state, in which one-third of the states total population was enslaved. The state did not vote to join the
Confederacy until President
Abraham Lincoln called on it to invade its sister state,
South Carolina, becoming the last or penultimate state to officially join the Confederacy. The title of "last to join the Confederacy" has been disputed; although Tennessee's informal secession on May 7, 1861, preceded North Carolina's official secession on May 20, the Tennessee legislature did not formally vote to secede until June 8, 1861.
Around 125,000 troops from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army, and about 15,000 North Carolina troops (both black and white) served in
Union Army regiments, along with many other men leaving the state to join Union regiments elsewhere. Over 30,000 North Carolina troops died from disease, battlefield wounds, or starvation. Elected in 1862, Governor
Zebulon Baird Vance tried to maintain state autonomy against Confederate President
Jefferson Davis in
Richmond. The state government was reluctant to support the demands of the national government in
Richmond, and the state was the scene of only small battles. In 1865, Durham County saw the largest single surrender of Confederate soldiers when
Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee and all remaining Confederate forces still active in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, totalling 89,270 soldiers.

After secession, some North Carolinians refused to support the Confederacy. Some of the yeoman farmers chiefly in the state's mountains and western Piedmont region remained neutral during the Civil War, with others covertly supporting the
Union cause during the conflict. Approximately 15,000 North Carolinians (both black and white) from across the state would enlist in the
Union Army. Numerous slaves would also escape to Union lines, where they became essentially free.
Confederate troops from all parts of North Carolina served in virtually all the major battles of the
Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy's most famous army. The largest battle fought in North Carolina was at
Bentonville, which was a futile attempt by Confederate General
Joseph Johnston to slow Union General
William Tecumseh Sherman's advance through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.
In April 1865, after losing the
Battle of Morrisville, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at
Bennett Place, in what is today
Durham. North Carolina's port city of
Wilmington was the last Confederate port to fall to the Union, in February 1865, after the Union won the nearby
Second Battle of Fort Fisher, its major defense downriver.

The first Confederate soldier to be killed in the Civil War was Private Henry Wyatt from North Carolina, in the
Battle of Big Bethel in June 1861. At the
Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the 26th North Carolina Regiment participated in
Pickett/Pettigrew's Charge and advanced the farthest into the Northern lines of any Confederate regiment. During the
Battle of Chickamauga, the 58th North Carolina Regiment advanced farther than any other regiment on Snodgrass Hill to push back the remaining Union forces from the battlefield. At
Appomattox Court House in Virginia in April 1865, the 75th North Carolina Regiment, a cavalry unit, fired the last shots of the Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. For many years, some North Carolinians proudly boasted that they had been "First at Bethel, Farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and Last at Appomattox".
Reconstruction era through late 19th century

Following the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865, North Carolina, along with the rest of the former Confederate States, was put under direct control by the
U.S. military and was relieved of its
constitutional government and representation within the
United States Congress in what is now referred to as the
Reconstruction era. In order to earn back its rights, the state had to make concessions to Washington, one of which was ratifying the
Thirteenth Amendment. Congressional Republicans during Reconstruction, commonly referred to as "
radical Republicans", constantly pushed for new constitutions for each of the Southern states that emphasized on equal rights for African-Americans. In 1868, a constitutional convention restored the state government of North Carolina. Though the
Fifteenth Amendment was also adopted that same year, it remained
in most cases ineffective for almost a century, not to mention paramilitary groups and their
lynching with impunity.
The elections in April 1868 following the constitutional convention led to a narrow victory for a Republican-dominated government, with 19 African-Americans holding positions in the
North Carolina State Legislature. In attempt to put the reforms into effect, the new Republican Governor
William W. Holden declared martial law on any county allegedly not complying with law and order using the passage of the
Shoffner Act.
A
Republican Party coalition of black freedmen, northern
carpetbaggers and local
scalawags controlled state government for three years. The white conservative Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1870, in part by
Ku Klux Klan violence and terrorism at the polls, to suppress black voting. Republicans were elected to the governorship until 1876, when the
Red Shirts, a paramilitary organization that arose in 1874 and was allied with the
Democratic Party, helped suppress black voting. More than 150 black Americans were murdered in electoral violence in 1876.
Post civil war-debt cycles pushed people to switch from subsistence agriculture to commodity agriculture. Among this time the notorious Crop-Lien system developed and was financially difficult on landless whites and blacks, due to high amounts of usury. Also due to the push for commodity agriculture, the free range was ended. Prior to this time people fenced in their crops and had their livestock feeding on the free range areas. After the ending of the free range people now fenced their animals and had their crops in the open.
Democrats were elected to the legislature and governor's office, but the
Populists attracted voters displeased with them. In 1896 a biracial, Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor's office and passed laws that would extend the voting franchise to blacks and poor whites. The Democrats regained control of the legislature in 1896 and passed laws to impose
Jim Crow and
racial segregation of public facilities. Voters of North Carolina's 2nd congressional district elected a total of four African-American
congressmen through these years of the late 19th century.
Political tensions ran so high a small group of white Democrats in 1898 planned to take over the
Wilmington government if their candidates were not elected. In the
Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, more than 1,500 white men attacked the black newspaper and neighborhood, killed numerous men, and ran off the white Republican mayor and aldermen. They installed their own people and elected
Alfred M. Waddell as mayor, in the only
coup d'état in United States history.
In 1899, the state legislature passed a new constitution, with requirements for
poll taxes and
literacy tests for voter registration which
disenfranchised most black Americans in the state. Exclusion from voting had wide effects: it meant black Americans could not serve on juries or in any local office. After a decade of
white supremacy, many people forgot North Carolina had ever had thriving middle-class black Americans. Black citizens had no political voice in the state until after the federal
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed to enforce their constitutional rights. It was not until 1992 that another
African American was elected as a U.S. Representative from North Carolina.
Early through mid-20th century
After the reconstruction era, North Carolina had become a one-party state, dominated by the
Democratic Party. The state mainly continued with an economy based on
tobacco, cotton textiles and commodity agriculture. Large towns and cities remained in few numbers. However, a major industrial base emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century, in the counties of the
Piedmont Triad, based on cotton mills established at the
fall line. Railroads were built to connect the new industrializing cities. The state was the site of
the first successful controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight, by the
Wright brothers, near
Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903. In the first half of the 20th century, many African Americans left the state to go North for better opportunities, in the
Great Migration. Their departure changed the demographic characteristics of many areas.
North Carolina was hard hit by the
Great Depression, but the
New Deal programs of
Franklin D. Roosevelt for cotton and tobacco significantly helped the farmers. After
World War II, the state's economy grew rapidly, highlighted by the growth of such cities as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham in the Piedmont region. Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill form the
Research Triangle, a major area of universities and advanced scientific and technical research.
By the late 1960s, spurred in part by the increasingly leftward tilt of national Democrats, conservative whites began to vote for Republican national candidates and gradually for more Republicans locally. The
Greensboro Sit-ins played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement to bring full equality to American blacks.
Late 20th century to present

Since the 1970s, North Carolina has seen steady increases in population growth. This growth has largely occurred in metropolitan areas located within the
Piedmont Crescent, in places such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Durham. The Charlotte metro has experienced large growth mainly due to its finance, banking, and tech industries. North Carolina State, Duke University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have helped the Raleigh region (
Research Triangle) attract an educated workforce and develop more jobs.
By the 1990s, Charlotte had become a major regional and national banking center.
Tourism has also been a boom for the North Carolina economy, as people flock to the Outer Banks coastal areas and the Appalachian Mountains anchored by
Asheville.
Geography

as seen from the
Blue Ridge Parkway ]]
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North Carolina consists of three main geographic regions: the
Atlantic coastal plain, occupying the eastern portion of the state; the central
Piedmont region, and the Mountain region in the west, which is part of the
Appalachian Mountains. The coastal plain consists of more specifically-defined areas known as the
Outer Banks, a string of sandy, narrow
barrier islands separated from the mainland by sounds or inlets, including
Albemarle Sound and
Pamlico Sound, the
tidewater region, the native home of the
venus flytrap, and the inner coastal plain, where
longleaf pine trees are native.
So many ships have been lost off
Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the "
Graveyard of the Atlantic"; more than a thousand ships have sunk in these waters since records began in 1526. The most famous of these is the ''
Queen Anne's Revenge'' (flagship of the pirate
Blackbeard), which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718.
The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the
Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the elevation at which waterfalls first appear on streams and rivers. The Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the state's most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of gently rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. Small, isolated, and deeply eroded mountain ranges and peaks are located in the Piedmont, including the
Sauratown Mountains,
Pilot Mountain, the
Uwharrie Mountains,
Crowder's Mountain,
King's Pinnacle, the
Brushy Mountains, and the
South Mountains. The Piedmont ranges from about in elevation in the east to about in the west.
The
western section of the state is part of the
Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the
Appalachian Mountains located in the state are the
Great Smoky Mountains,
Blue Ridge Mountains, and
Black Mountains.
The Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in
Mount Mitchell at , the highest point east of the
Mississippi River.
North Carolina has 17 major river basins. The five basins west of the
Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the
Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean.
Of the 17 basins, 11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the state's border—the
Cape Fear, the
Neuse, the
White Oak, and the
Tar–
Pamlico basin.
Flora and fauna
Climate

Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, with the mountain area being coolest year-round. The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, where temperatures only occasionally drop below the freezing point at night. The coastal plain averages around of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all.
The Atlantic Ocean exerts less influence on the climate of the Piedmont region, which has hotter summers and colder winters than along the coast, though the average daily maximum is still below in most locations.
North Carolina experiences severe weather both in summer and in winter, with summer bringing threat of
hurricanes,
tropical storms, heavy rain, and flooding. Destructive hurricanes that have hit North Carolina include
Hurricane Fran,
Hurricane Florence,
Hurricane Floyd,
Hurricane Hugo, and
Hurricane Hazel, the latter being the strongest storm ever to make landfall in the state, as a
Category4 in 1954.
Hurricane Isabel ranks as the most destructive of the 21st century.
North Carolina averages fewer than 20 tornadoes per year, many of them produced by hurricanes or tropical storms along the coastal plain. Tornadoes from thunderstorms are a risk, especially in the eastern part of the state. The western Piedmont is often protected by the mountains, which tend to break up storms as they try to cross over; the storms will often re-form farther east. A phenomenon known as "
cold-air damming" often occurs in the northwestern part of the state, which can weaken storms but can also lead to major ice events in winter.
In April 2011,
the worst tornado outbreak in North Carolina's history occurred. Thirty confirmed tornadoes touched down, mainly in the Eastern Piedmont and Sandhills, killing at least 24 people. In September 2019
Hurricane Dorian hit the area.
Demographics
The
United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of North Carolina was 10,488,084 on July 1, 2019, an 9.99% increase since the
2010 Census.
Of the people residing in North Carolina 58.5% were born there; 33.1% were born in another state; 1.0% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s); and 7.4% were foreign-born.
Ethnicity
Demographics of North Carolina covers the variety of ethnic groups who reside in North Carolina, along with the relevant trends.
The state's racial composition in the 2010 Census:
*
White: 68.5% (65.3%
non-Hispanic white, 3.2%
White Hispanic)
*
Black or
African American: 21.5%
*
Latin and
Hispanic American of any race: 8.4%
*
Some other race: 4.3%
*
Multiracial American: 2.2%
*
Asian American: 2.2%
*
Native Hawaiian and
Pacific Islander: 1%
Languages
As of 2010, 89.66% (7,750,904) of North Carolina residents age five and older spoke English at home as a
primary language, while 6.93% (598,756) spoke Spanish, 0.32% (27,310) French, 0.27% (23,204) German, and Chinese (which includes
Mandarin) was spoken as a
main language by 0.27% (23,072) of the population five and older. In total, 10.34% (893,735) of North Carolina's population age five and older spoke a
mother language other than English.
North Carolina is also home to a spectrum of different dialects of
Southern American English and
Appalachian English.
Religion
North Carolina residents since the colonial era, have historically been overwhelmingly
Protestant – first Anglican, then Baptist and Methodist. In 1845, the Baptists split into regional associations of the North and South, over the issue of slavery.
By the late 19th century, the largest Protestant denomination in North Carolina were
Baptists. After
emancipation, black Baptists quickly set up their own independent congregations in North Carolina and other states of the South, as they wanted to be free of white supervision.
Black Baptists developed their own state and national associations, such as the
National Baptist Convention USA, Inc..
[Albert J. Raboteau, ''Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1979]
While Baptists have maintained the majority Protestant denomination in this part of the country (known as the
Bible Belt), a wide variety of faiths are practiced by other residents in the state, including:
Judaism,
Islam,
Baháʼí,
Buddhism, and
Hinduism. As of 2010, the
Southern Baptist Convention was the biggest denomination, with 4,241 churches and 1,513,000 members. The second largest was the
United Methodist Church, with 660,000 members and 1,923 churches. The third was the Roman
Catholic Church, with 428,000 members in 190
parishes. The fourth greatest was the
Presbyterian Church (USA), with 186,000 members and 710 congregations; this denomination was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled the backcountry in the colonial era.
The state also has a special history with the
Moravian Church, as settlers of this faith (largely of German origin) settled in the
Winston-Salem area in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Presbyterians, historically Scots-Irish, have had a strong presence in
Charlotte and in
Scotland County.
Currently, the rapid influx of
northerners and immigrants from Latin America, is steadily increasing ethnic and religious diversity. The number of
Roman Catholics and
Jews in the state has increased, as well as general religious diversity. The second-largest Protestant denomination in North Carolina, after Baptist traditions, is
Methodism. This tends to be strong in the northern Piedmont, especially in populous
Guilford County. There are also a substantial number of
Quakers in Guilford County and northeastern North Carolina. Many universities and colleges in the state have been founded on religious traditions, and some currently maintain that affiliation, including:
*
Barton College (Disciples of Christ)
*
Belmont Abbey College (Catholic)
*
Bennett College for Women (United Methodist Church)
*
Brevard College (United Methodist Church)
*
Campbell University (Baptist)
*
Catawba College (United Church of Christ)
*
Chowan University (Baptist)
*
Davidson College (Presbyterian)
*
Duke University (Historically Methodist)
*
Elon University (United Church of Christ)
*
Gardner–Webb University (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship)
*
Greensboro College (Methodist)
*
Guilford College (Religious Society of Friends Quakers)
*
High Point University (United Methodist Church)
*
Lees-McRae College (Presbyterian)
*
Lenoir-Rhyne University (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)
*
Livingstone College (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church)
*
Louisburg College (United Methodist Church)
*
Mars Hill University (Christian)
*
Methodist University (United Methodist Church)
*
Montreat College (Christian)
*
University of Mount Olive (Baptist)
*
North Carolina Wesleyan College (United Methodist Church)
*
William Peace University (Presbyterian)
*
Pfeiffer University (Methodist)
*
Queens University of Charlotte (Presbyterian)
*
St. Andrews Presbyterian College (Presbyterian)
*
Saint Augustine's College (Episcopal)
*
Salem College (
Moravian Church)
*
Shaw University (Baptist)
*
Wake Forest University (Historically Baptist)
*
Warren Wilson College (Historically Presbyterian)
*
Wingate University (Historically Baptist)
The state also has several major seminaries, including the
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Wake Forest, and the
Hood Theological Seminary (AME Zion) in
Salisbury.
Most populous counties
In 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual population estimate counts for North Carolina's counties.
Wake County has the largest population, while
Mecklenburg County has the second largest population in North Carolina.
Major cities
In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2018 population estimate counts for North Carolina's cities with populations above 70,000.
Charlotte has the largest population in the state, while
Raleigh has the highest population density of North Carolina's largest cities.
Largest combined statistical areas

North Carolina has three major
Combined Statistical Areas with populations of more than 1.6million (
U.S. Census Bureau 2018 estimates):
*
Charlotte Metro: ''Charlotte–Concord–Gastonia, North Carolina–South Carolina'' population 2,728,933
*
Research Triangle: ''Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina'' population 2,238,315
*
Piedmont Triad: ''Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina'' population 1,677,551
Economy
North Carolina's 2018 total
gross state product was $496billion.
Based on American Community Survey 2010–2014 data, North Carolina's median household income was $46,693. It ranked forty-first out of fifty states plus the District of Columbia for median household income. North Carolina had the fourteenth highest poverty rate in the nation at 17.6%. 13% of families were below the poverty line.
The state has a very diverse economy because of its great availability of hydroelectric power, its pleasant climate, and its wide variety of soils. The state ranks third among the South Atlantic states in population, but leads the region in industry and agriculture. North Carolina leads the nation in the production of tobacco, textiles, and furniture. Charlotte, the state's largest city, is a major textile and trade center. According to a Forbes article written in 2013 Employment in the "Old North State" has gained many different industry sectors. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries in the area surrounding North Carolina's capital have grown 17.9 percent since 2001, placing Raleigh-Cary at No.5 among the 51 largest metro areas in the country where technology is booming. In 2010, North Carolina's total gross state product was $424.9billion, while the state debt in November 2012, according to one source, totalled $2.4billion, while according to another, was in 2012 $57.8billion. In 2011, the civilian labor force was at around 4.5million with employment near 4.1million.
North Carolina is the leading U.S. state in production of
flue-cured tobacco and
sweet potatoes, and comes second in the farming of pigs and hogs,
trout, and
turkeys.
In the three most recent
USDA surveys (2002, 2007, 2012), North Carolina also ranked second in the production of
Christmas trees.
North Carolina has 15 metropolitan areas, and in 2010 was chosen as the third-best state for business by Forbes Magazine, and the second-best state by Chief Executive Officer Magazine. Since 2000, there has been a clear division in the economic growth of North Carolina's urban and rural areas. While North Carolina's urban areas have enjoyed a prosperous economy with steady job growth, low unemployment, and rising wages, many of the state's rural counties have suffered from job loss, rising levels of poverty, and population loss as their manufacturing base has declined. According to one estimate, one-half of North Carolina's 100 counties have lost population since 2010, primarily due to the poor economy in many of North Carolina's rural areas. However, the population of the state's urban areas is steadily increasing.
[)]
Health
The residents of North Carolina
have a lower life expectancy than the U.S. national average of life expectancy. According to the
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, in 2014, males in North Carolina lived an average of 75.4 years compared to the national average of 76.7 years. Females in North Carolina lived an average of 80.2 years compared to the national average of 81.5 years. Male life expectancy in North Carolina between 1980 and 2014, increased by an average of 6.9 years, slightly higher than the male national average of a 6.7 year increase. Life expectancy for females in North Carolina between 1980 and 2014, increased by 4.0 years, identical to the female national average of a 4.0 year increase.
Using 2016–2018 data, the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation calculated that life expectancy for North Carolina counties, ranging from 73.2 years in
Robeson County to 82.1 years in
Orange County. Life expectancy for both sexes in the state was 78.0 years, compared to 78.7 years for the U.S. as a whole.
Transportation

Transportation systems in North Carolina consist of air, water, road, rail, and public transportation including intercity rail via Amtrak and light rail in Charlotte. North Carolina has the second-largest state highway system in the country as well as the largest ferry system on the east coast.
North Carolina's airports serve destinations throughout the United States and international destinations in Canada, Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2013
Charlotte Douglas International Airport, which serves as the second busiest hub for
American Airlines, ranked as the 23rd busiest airport in the world.
North Carolina has a growing passenger rail system with Amtrak serving most major cities. Charlotte is also home to North Carolina's only light rail system known as the Lynx.
Government and politics

The government of North Carolina is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. These consist of the
Council of State (led by the
Governor), the
bicameral legislature (called the
General Assembly), and the state court system (headed by the
North Carolina Supreme Court). The
state constitution delineates the structure and function of the state government. North Carolina has 13 seats in the
U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the
U.S. Senate.
North Carolina's party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the 2010 midterms saw
Tar Heel voters elect a bicameral
Republican majority legislature for the first time in more than a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern
swing state in presidential races. Since Southern Democrat
Jimmy Carter's comfortable victory in the state
in 1976, the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat
Barack Obama narrowly won the state
in 2008. In the 1990s, Democrat
Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state
in 1992 and also only narrowly lost the state
in 1996. In the early 2000s, Republican
George W. Bush easily won the state by more than 12 points.
By 2008, demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in densely populated areas such as the
Research Triangle,
Charlotte,
Greensboro,
Winston-Salem,
Fayetteville, and
Asheville, propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democrat to win the state since 1976. In
2012, North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their
2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. However, Republican
Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a two-point win in North Carolina, the only 2012 swing state Obama lost, and one of only two states (along with
Indiana) to flip from Obama in 2008 to the GOP in 2012. Furthermore, Republican Donald Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2020.
In 2012, the state elected a Republican governor (
Pat McCrory) and lieutenant governor (
Dan Forest) for the first time in more than two decades, while also giving the Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. Several U.S. House of Representatives seats flipped control in 2012, with the Republicans holding nine seats to the Democrats' four. In the 2014 mid-term elections, Republican
David Rouzer won the state's
seventh congressional district seat, increasing the congressional delegation party split to 10–3 in favor of the GOP.
North Carolina Republicans won 10 of the 13 seats in 2016, when Democrats got 47 percent of the statewide vote. In 2018 Republicans took nine, with one seat undecided, even though Democrats got 48 percent of the overall vote.
The undecided election in
North Carolina's 9th congressional district was because the bipartisan State Election Board refused in February 2019 to certify the results, after an investigation found evidence of widespread ballot fraud committed by Republican operatives.
Gerrymandering
Because of gerrymandering in redistricting after the 2010 census, Democrats have been underrepresented in the state and Congressional delegations since 2012, although they have sometimes represented more than half the state's population.
The state was sued for
racially gerrymandering the districts, which resulted in minority voting power being diluted in some areas, resulting in skewed representation. The federal court ordered redistricting in 2015.
Two suits challenging the state congressional district map were led by "two dozen voters, the state Democratic Party, the state chapter of the League of Women Voters, and the interest group Common Cause".
They contend that the redistricting resulted in deliberate under-representation of a substantial portion of voters. This case reached the United States Supreme Court in March 2019, which also heard a related partisan gerrymandering case from Maryland.
Education
Primary and secondary education

Elementary and secondary public schools are overseen by the
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The
North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction is the secretary of the
North Carolina State Board of Education, but the board, rather than the superintendent, holds most of the legal authority for making public education policy. In 2009, the board's chairman also became the "chief executive officer" for the state's school system. North Carolina has 115 public school systems, each of which is overseen by a local school board.
A county may have one or more systems within it. The largest school systems in North Carolina are the
Wake County Public School System,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,
Guilford County Schools,
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and
Cumberland County Schools. In total there are 2,425 public schools in the state, including over 200
charter schools. North Carolina Schools were segregated until the ''
Brown v. Board of Education'' trial and the release of the
Pearsall Plan.
Colleges and universities
In 1795, North Carolina opened the first public university in the United States—the University of North Carolina (now named the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). More than 200 years later, the
University of North Carolina system encompasses 17
public universities including
North Carolina State University,
North Carolina A&T State University,
North Carolina Central University, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
East Carolina University,
Western Carolina University,
Winston-Salem State University, the
University of North Carolina at Asheville, the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the
University of North Carolina at Pembroke,
UNC Wilmington,
Elizabeth City State University,
Appalachian State University,
Fayetteville State University, and
UNC School of the Arts, and . Along with its public universities, North Carolina has 58 public
community colleges in its
community college system. The largest university in North Carolina is currently
North Carolina State University, with more than 34,000 students.
North Carolina is also home to many well-known private colleges and universities, including
Duke University,
Wake Forest University,
Pfeiffer University,
Lees-McRae College,
Davidson College,
Barton College,
North Carolina Wesleyan College,
Elon University,
Guilford College, Livingstone College,
Salem College,
Shaw University (the first
historically black college or university in the South),
Laurel University,
William Peace University,
Meredith College,
Methodist University,
Belmont Abbey College (the only Catholic college in the Carolinas),
Campbell University,
University of Mount Olive,
Montreat College,
High Point University,
Lenoir-Rhyne University (the only Lutheran university in North Carolina) and
Wingate University.
Media
Early newspapers were established in the eastern part of North Carolina in the mid-18th century.
The Fayetteville Observer, established in 1816, is the oldest newspaper still in publication in North Carolina. The
Wilmington Star-News, established 1867, is the oldest continuously running newspaper. As of January 1, 2020, there were approximately 240 North Carolina newspapers in publication in the state of North Carolina.
Sports
North Carolina is home to four
major league sports franchises: the
Carolina Panthers of the
National Football League, the
Charlotte Hornets of the
National Basketball Association, and
Charlotte FC of
Major League Soccer are based in Charlotte, while the Raleigh-based
Carolina Hurricanes play in the
National Hockey League. The Panthers and Hurricanes are the only two major professional sports teams that have the same geographical designation while playing in different metropolitan areas. The Hurricanes are the only major professional team from North Carolina to have won a league championship,
having captured the Stanley Cup in 2006. North Carolina is also home to two other top-level professional teams in less prominent sports—the Charlotte Hounds of
Major League Lacrosse and the
North Carolina Courage of the
National Women's Soccer League.
While North Carolina has no
Major League Baseball team, it does have numerous minor league baseball teams, with the highest level of play coming from the
AAA-affiliated
Charlotte Knights and
Durham Bulls. Additionally, North Carolina has minor league teams in other team sports including
soccer and
ice hockey, most notably
North Carolina FC and the
Charlotte Checkers, both of which play in the second tier of their respective sports.
In addition to professional team sports, North Carolina has a strong affiliation with
NASCAR and stock-car racing, with
Charlotte Motor Speedway in
Concord hosting two
Cup Series races every year. Charlotte also hosts the
NASCAR Hall of Fame, while Concord is the home of several top-flight racing teams, including
Hendrick Motorsports,
Roush Fenway Racing,
Richard Petty Motorsports,
Stewart-Haas Racing, and
Chip Ganassi Racing. Numerous other tracks around North Carolina host races from low-tier NASCAR circuits as well.
Golf is a popular summertime leisure activity, and North Carolina has hosted several important professional golf tournaments.
Pinehurst Resort in
Pinehurst has hosted a
PGA Championship,
Ryder Cup, two
U.S. Opens, and one
U.S. Women's Open. The
Wells Fargo Championship is a regular stop on the
PGA Tour and is held at
Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, and Quail Hollow has also played host to the PGA Championship. The
Wyndham Championship is played annually in Greensboro at
Sedgefield Country Club.
College sports are also popular in North Carolina, with 18 schools competing at the
Division I level. The
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is headquartered in
Greensboro, and both the
ACC Football Championship Game (Charlotte) and the
ACC Men's Basketball Tournament (Greensboro) were most recently held in North Carolina. Additionally, the city of
Charlotte is home to the
National Junior College Athletics Association's (NJCAA) headquarters.
College basketball is very popular in North Carolina, buoyed by the
Tobacco Road rivalries between ACC members
North Carolina,
Duke,
North Carolina State, and
Wake Forest. The
ACC Championship Game and the
Duke's Mayo Bowl are held annually in Charlotte's
Bank of America Stadium, featuring teams from the ACC and the
Southeastern Conference. Additionally, the state has hosted the NCAA Men's Basketball
Final Four on two occasions, in Greensboro in 1974 and in Charlotte in 1994.
Tourism
Charlotte is the most-visited city in the state, attracting 28.3million visitors in 2018. Area attractions include
Carolina Panthers NFL football team and
Charlotte Hornets basketball team,
Carowinds amusement park,
Charlotte Motor Speedway,
U.S. National Whitewater Center,
Discovery Place,
Great Wolf Lodge, Sea Life Aquarium,
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art,
Billy Graham Library,
Carolinas Aviation Museum,
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture,
Levine Museum of the New South,
McColl Center for Art + Innovation,
Mint Museum, and the
NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Every year the
Appalachian Mountains attract several million tourists to the western part of the state, including the historic
Biltmore Estate. The scenic
Blue Ridge Parkway and
Great Smoky Mountains National Park are the two most visited national park and unit in the United States with more than 25million visitors in 2013. The City of
Asheville is consistently voted as one of the top places to visit and live in the United States, known for its rich art deco architecture, mountain scenery and outdoor activities.
In
Raleigh, many tourists visit the Capital,
African American Cultural Complex,
Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh,
Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NCSU,
Haywood Hall House & Gardens,
Marbles Kids Museum,
North Carolina Museum of Art,
North Carolina Museum of History,
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences,
North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame,
Raleigh City Museum,
J. C. Raulston Arboretum,
Joel Lane House,
Mordecai House,
Montfort Hall, and the
Pope House Museum. The
Carolina Hurricanes NHL hockey team is also located in the city.
In the
Conover–
Hickory area,
Hickory Motor Speedway, RockBarn Golf and Spa, home of the
Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn;
Catawba County Firefighters Museum, and SALT Block attract many tourists to Conover. Hickory which has
Valley Hills Mall.
The
Piedmont Triad, or center of the state, is home to
Krispy Kreme,
Mayberry,
Texas Pete, the
Lexington Barbecue Festival, and
Moravian cookies. The internationally acclaimed
North Carolina Zoo in
Asheboro attracts visitors to its animals, plants, and a 57-piece art collection along five miles of shaded pathways in the world's largest-land-area natural-habitat park.
Seagrove, in the central portion of the state, attracts many tourists along
Pottery Highway (NC Hwy 705).
MerleFest in
Wilkesboro attracts more than 80,000 people to its four-day music festival; and Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe water park in
Greensboro is another attraction.
The
Outer Banks and surrounding beaches attract millions of people to the Atlantic beaches every year.
The mainland northeastern part of the state, having recently adopted the name the
Inner Banks, is also known as the Albemarle Region, for the
Albemarle Settlements, some of the first settlements on North Carolina's portion of the
Atlantic Coastal Plain. The regions historic sites are connected by the
Historic Albemarle Tour.
Recreation

North Carolina provides a large range of recreational activities, from swimming at the beach to
skiing in the mountains. North Carolina offers
fall colors, freshwater and saltwater fishing, hunting,
birdwatching,
agritourism,
ATV trails,
ballooning,
rock climbing,
biking, hiking,
skiing,
boating and sailing,
camping,
canoeing,
caving (spelunking), gardens, and
arboretums. North Carolina has
theme parks,
aquariums, museums,
historic sites,
lighthouses, elegant theaters,
concert halls, and
fine dining.
North Carolinians enjoy outdoor recreation utilizing numerous local bike paths, 34
state parks, and 14
national parks.
National Park Service units include the
Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the
Blue Ridge Parkway,
Cape Hatteras National Seashore,
Cape Lookout National Seashore,
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site at
Flat Rock,
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site at
Manteo,
Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in
Greensboro,
Moores Creek National Battlefield near
Currie in
Pender County, the
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail,
Old Salem National Historic Site in
Winston-Salem, the
Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, and
Wright Brothers National Memorial in
Kill Devil Hills. National Forests include
Uwharrie National Forest in central North Carolina,
Croatan National Forest in
Eastern North Carolina,
Pisgah National Forest in the western mountains, and
Nantahala National Forest in the southwestern part of the state.
Arts and culture
North Carolina has traditions in art, music, and cuisine. The nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $1.2billion in direct economic activity in North Carolina, supporting more than 43,600 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $119million in revenue for local governments and the state of North Carolina. North Carolina established the
North Carolina Museum of Art as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding and continues to bring millions into the NC economy. Also see this
list of museums in North Carolina.
One of the more famous arts communities in the state is
Seagrove, the handmade-pottery capital of the U.S., where artisans create handcrafted pottery inspired by the same traditions that began in this community more than two hundred years ago.
Music
North Carolina boasts a large number of noteworthy
jazz musicians, some among the most important in the history of the genre. These include:
John Coltrane, (
Hamlet,
High Point);
Thelonious Monk (
Rocky Mount);
Billy Taylor (
Greenville);
Woody Shaw (
Laurinburg);
Lou Donaldson (
Durham);
Max Roach (
Newland);
Tal Farlow (
Greensboro);
Albert,
Jimmy and
Percy Heath (
Wilmington);
Nina Simone (
Tryon); and
Billy Strayhorn (
Hillsborough).
North Carolina is also famous for its tradition of
old-time music, and many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk-song collector
Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Musicians such as the
North Carolina Ramblers helped solidify the sound of
country music in the late 1920s, while the influential
bluegrass musician
Doc Watson also hailed from North Carolina. Both North and South Carolina are hotbeds for traditional rural
blues, especially the style known as the
Piedmont blues.
Ben Folds Five originated in
Winston-Salem, and
Ben Folds still records and resides in
Chapel Hill.
The British band
Pink Floyd is named, in part, after Chapel Hill bluesman
Floyd Council.
The
Research Triangle area has long been a well-known center for
folk, rock,
metal, jazz and
punk.
James Taylor grew up around Chapel Hill, and his 1968 song "
Carolina in My Mind" has been called an unofficial anthem for the state. Other famous musicians from North Carolina include
J. Cole,
Shirley Caesar,
Roberta Flack,
Clyde McPhatter,
Nnenna Freelon,
Warren Haynes,
Jimmy Herring,
Michael Houser,
Eric Church,
Future Islands,
Randy Travis,
Ryan Adams,
Ronnie Milsap,
Anthony Hamilton,
The Avett Brothers and
Luke Combs.
Metal and
punk acts such as
Corrosion of Conformity,
Between the Buried and Me, and
Nightmare Sonata are native to North Carolina.
EDM producer
Porter Robinson hails from
Chapel Hill.
North Carolina is the home of more ''
American Idol'' finalists than any other state:
Clay Aiken (season two),
Fantasia Barrino (season three),
Chris Daughtry (season five),
Kellie Pickler (season five),
Bucky Covington (season five),
Anoop Desai (season eight),
Scotty McCreery (season ten), and
Caleb Johnson (season thirteen). North Carolina also has the most ''American Idol'' winners with Barrino, McCreery, and Johnson.
In the mountains, the
Brevard Music Center hosts choral, operatic, orchestral, and solo performances during its annual summer schedule.
North Carolina has five professional opera companies:
Opera Carolina in Charlotte,
NC Opera in Raleigh,
Greensboro Opera in Greensboro,
Piedmont Opera in Winston-Salem, and
Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville. Academic conservatories and universities also produce fully staged operas, such as the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, the Department of Music of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and UNC Greensboro.
Among others, there are three high-level symphonic orchestras:
NC Symphony in Raleigh,
Charlotte Symphony, and
Winston-Salem Symphony. The NC Symphony holds the North Carolina Master Chorale. The
Carolina Ballet is headquartered in Raleigh, and there is also the
Charlotte Ballet.
The state boasts three performing arts centers: DPAC in Durham, Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh, and the Blumenthal Performing Art Centers in Charlotte. They feature concerts, operas, recitals, and traveling Broadway musicals.
Hip-hop artists
DaBaby and
J. Cole hail from North Carolina.
Also, see the
North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
Shopping
North Carolina has a variety of shopping choices.
SouthPark Mall in
Charlotte is currently the largest in the Carolinas, with almost two million square feet. Other major malls in Charlotte include
Northlake Mall and
Carolina Place Mall in nearby suburb
Pineville. Other major malls throughout the state include
Hanes Mall in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
The Thruway Center in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
Crabtree Valley Mall,
North Hills Mall, and
Triangle Town Center in
Raleigh;
Friendly Center and
Four Seasons Town Centre in
Greensboro;
Oak Hollow Mall in
High Point;
Concord Mills in
Concord;
Valley Hills Mall in
Hickory;
Cross Creek Mall in
Fayetteville; and
The Streets at Southpoint and
Northgate Mall in
Durham and
Independence Mall in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Tanger Outlets in Charlotte, Nags Head, Blowing Rock, and Mebane, North Carolina.
Cuisine and agriculture

A culinary staple of North Carolina is pork
barbecue. There are strong regional differences and rivalries over the sauces and methods used in making the barbecue. The common trend across Western North Carolina is the use of premium grade
Boston butt. Western North Carolina pork barbecue uses a tomato-based sauce, and only the pork shoulder (dark meat) is used. Western North Carolina barbecue is commonly referred to as Lexington barbecue after the
Piedmont Triad town of
Lexington, home of the
Lexington Barbecue Festival, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors each October. Eastern North Carolina pork barbecue uses a
vinegar-and-red-pepper-based sauce and the "whole hog" is cooked, thus integrating both white and dark meat.
Krispy Kreme, an international chain of doughnut stores, was started in North Carolina; the company's headquarters are in
Winston-Salem.
Pepsi-Cola was first produced in 1898 in New Bern. A regional
soft drink,
Cheerwine, was created and is still based in the city of Salisbury. Despite its name, the hot sauce
Texas Pete was created in North Carolina; its headquarters are also in Winston-Salem. The
Hardee's fast-food chain was started in
Rocky Mount. Another fast-food chain,
Bojangles', was started in
Charlotte, and has its corporate headquarters there. A popular North Carolina restaurant chain is
Golden Corral. Started in 1973, the chain was founded in
Fayetteville, with headquarters located in
Raleigh. Popular
pickle brand
Mount Olive Pickle Company was founded in
Mount Olive in 1926. Fast casual burger chain
Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries also makes its home in
Mount Olive.
Cook Out, a popular fast-food chain featuring burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes in a wide variety of flavors, was founded in Greensboro in 1989 and has begun expanding outside of North Carolina. In 2013, ''Southern Living'' named Durham–Chapel Hill the South's "Tastiest City".
Over the last decade, North Carolina has become a cultural epicenter and haven for internationally prize-winning wine (Noni Bacca Winery), internationally prized cheeses (Ashe County), "L'institut International aux Arts Gastronomiques: Conquerront Les Yanks les Truffes, January 15, 2010" international hub for truffles (Garland Truffles), and beer making, as tobacco land has been converted to grape orchards while state laws regulating
alcohol by volume (ABV) in beer allowed a jump from six to fifteen percent. The Yadkin Valley in particular has become a strengthening market for grape production, while
Asheville recently won the recognition of being named "Beer City USA". Asheville boasts the largest number of
breweries per capita of any city in the United States. Recognized and marketed brands of beer in North Carolina include Highland Brewing, Duck Rabbit Brewery, Mother Earth Brewery, Weeping Radish Brewery, Big Boss Brewing, Foothills Brewing, Carolina Brewing Company, Lonerider Brewing, and White Rabbit Brewing Company.
North Carolina has large grazing areas for beef and dairy cattle. Truck farms can be found in North Carolina. A truck farm is a small farm where fruits and vegetables are grown to be sold at local markets. The state's shipping, commercial fishing, and lumber industries are important to its economy. Service industries, including education, health care, private research, and retail trade, are also important. Research Triangle Park, a large industrial complex located in the Raleigh-Durham area, is one of the major centers in the country for electronics and medical research.
Tobacco was one of the first major industries to develop after the
Civil War. Many farmers grew some tobacco, and the invention of the cigarette made the product especially popular. Winston-Salem is the birthplace of
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), founded by
R. J. Reynolds in 1874 as one of sixteen tobacco companies in the town. By 1914 it was selling 425million packs of Camels a year. Today it is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. (behind
Altria Group). RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., which in turn is 42% owned by
British American Tobacco.
Ships named for the state

Several ships have been named after the state, most famously in the
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. Now decommissioned, she is part of the USS ''North Carolina'' Battleship Memorial in Wilmington. Another , a nuclear attack
submarine, was commissioned in Wilmington on May 3, 2008.
State parks
The state maintains a group of
protected areas known as the North Carolina State Park System, which is managed by the North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation (NCDPR), an agency of the
North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR).
State symbols
*
State motto: ''
Esse quam videri'' ("To be, rather than to seem") (1893)
*
State song: "
The Old North State" (1927)
*
State flower:
Dogwood (1941)
*
State bird:
Cardinal (1943)
*
State colors: The red and blue of the
N.C. and
U.S. flags (1945)
* State toast: "
The Tar Heel Toast" (1957)
*
State tree:
Pine (''Pinus'') (1963)
*
State shell:
Scotch bonnet (1965)
*
State mammal:
Eastern gray squirrel (1969)
*
State salt water fish:
Red drum (also known as the channel bass) (1971)
*
State insect:
European honey bee (1973)
*
State gemstone:
Emerald (1973)
*
State reptile:
Eastern box turtle (1979)
*
State rock:
Granite (1979)
*
State beverage: Milk (1987)
*
State historical boat:
Shad boat (1987)
* State language: English (1987)
* State dog:
Plott Hound (1989)
* State military academy:
Oak Ridge Military Academy (1991)
*
State tartan:
Carolina tartan (1991)
*
State vegetable:
Sweet potato (1995)
*
State red berry:
Strawberry (2001)
*
State blue berry:
Blueberry (2001)
*
State fruit:
Scuppernong grape (2001)
*
State wildflower:
Carolina lily (2003)
* State Christmas tree:
Fraser fir (2005)
* State carnivorous plant:
Venus flytrap (2005)
*
State folk dance:
Clogging (2005)
*
State popular dance:
Carolina shag (2005)
* State birthplace of traditional pottery:
The Seagrove area (2005)
* State sport:
NASCAR (2011)
Armed forces installations
Fort Bragg, near
Fayetteville and
Southern Pines, is a large and comprehensive military base and is the headquarters of the
XVIII Airborne Corps,
82nd Airborne Division, and the
U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Serving as the air wing for Fort Bragg is
Pope Field, also located near Fayetteville.
Located in
Jacksonville,
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, combined with nearby bases
Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point,
MCAS New River,
Camp Geiger,
Camp Johnson,
Stone Bay and Courthouse Bay, makes up the largest concentration of Marines and sailors in the world.
MCAS Cherry Point is home of the
2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Located in
Goldsboro,
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is home of the
4th Fighter Wing and
916th Air Refueling Wing. One of the busiest air stations in the
United States Coast Guard is located at the
Coast Guard Air Station in
Elizabeth City. Also stationed in North Carolina is the
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point in
Southport.
On January 24, 1961, a B-52G
broke up in midair and crashed after suffering a severe fuel loss, near
Goldsboro, dropping two
nuclear bombs in the process without detonation. In 2013, it was revealed that three safety mechanisms on one bomb had failed, leaving just one low-voltage switch preventing detonation.
"USAF Atomic Bomb in North Carolina 1961"
, ''The Guardian'', September 20, 2013
See also
* Index of North Carolina–related articles
* Outline of North Carolina
References
Bibliography
* Lefler, Hugh (numerous editions since 1934). ''North Carolina History Told by Contemporaries ''. University of North Carolina Press.
* Jones, H. G. (1984). ''North Carolina Illustrated, 1524–1984''. University of North Carolina Press.
* ''North Carolina Manual''. Published biennially by the Department of the Secretary of State since 1941.
The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection
A grant-funded project to provide digital access to publications of and about religious bodies in North Carolina. Partner institutions at Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University contributed the largest portion of the items in this collection, but the collection is enriched by unique materials from libraries and archives throughout North Carolina. The materials in this collection include local church histories, periodicals, clergy biographies, cookbooks, event programs, directories, and much more.
Further reading
* James, Clay; Orr, Douglas, eds. (1971). ''North Carolina Atlas: Portrait of a Changing Southern State''.
* Christensen, Rob (2008). ''The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
* Cooper, Christopher A.; Knotts, H. Gibbs, eds. (2008). ''The New Politics of North Carolina''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
* Crow; Jeffrey J.; Tise, Larry E. (1979). ''Writing North Carolina History''
Online.
* Eamon, Tom (2014). ''The Making of a Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics from Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory''. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
* Fleer, Jack D. (1994). ''North Carolina Government & Politics''
Online political science textbook.
* Hawks, Francis L. (1857). ''History of North Carolina, Volumes I and II''.
* Kersey, Marianne M.; Coble, Ran, eds. (1989). ''North Carolina Focus: An Anthology on State Government, Politics, and Policy''. 2d ed. Raleigh: North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.
* Lefler, Hugh Talmage (1963). ''A Guide to the Study and Reading of North Carolina History''
Online.
* Lefler, Hugh Talmage; Newsome, Albert Ray (1954, 1963, 1973). ''North Carolina: The History of a Southern State''. Standard textbook.
* Link, William A. (2009). ''North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State''. History by leading scholar.
* Luebke, Paul (1990). ''Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities''.
* Powell, William S. (1979–88). ''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography''. Vol. 1, A-C; vol. 2, D-G; vol. 3, H-K.
* Powell, William S. (1958). ''North Carolina Fiction, 1734–1957: An Annotated Bibliography''.
* Powell, William S. (1989). ''North Carolina through Four Centuries''. Standard textbook.
* Powell, William S.; Mazzocchi, Jay, eds. (2006). ''Encyclopedia of North Carolina''.
* Ready, Milton. (2005). ''The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina''.
* Thuesen, Sarah Caroline. (2013). ''Greater Than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship in North Carolina, 1919–1965''. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.
* WPA Federal Writers' Project (1939). ''North Carolina: A Guide to the Old North State''. Famous WPA guide to every town.
External links
General
Wineries, Restaurants and Tourism in the state
*
History
North Carolina State Guide, from the Library of Congress
The Guardian: "U.S. nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina—secret document"
Government and education
North Carolina state government
North Carolina state library
Energy & Environmental Data for North Carolina
USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of North Carolina
North Carolina facts from U.S. Department of Agriculture ERS
North Carolina Court System official site
NC ECHO—North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online
North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Green 'N' Growing: The History of Home Demonstration and 4-H Youth Development in North Carolina
hosted by NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center
NC Office of Archives and History
Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Driving Through Time: The Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina
The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection
Other
*
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Category:Southern United States
Category:Spanish colonization of the Americas
Category:State of Franklin
Category:States and territories established in 1789
Category:States of the Confederate States
Category:States of the East Coast of the United States
Category:States of the United States