5 Things the Census Tells Us About NC

  1. NC is growing. North Carolina grew by 9.5% over the last decade, higher than the national average of 7.4%. The state is now home to 10.4 million people. We are getting our fourteenth Congressional seat! 
  2. Charlotte and Raleigh continue to boom. Charlotte has held onto its place as NC’s largest city, but Wake County is NC’s most populous county, largely thanks to growth in the municipalities around Raleigh.
  3. NC’s rural counties overall saw a decline in population. Charlotte and Raleigh may be booming but not all of our counties are feeling it. More than half of the state’s counties lost population between 2010 and 2020. Downeast was hit particularly hard, and Tyrell and Hyde, the two least populous counties, reported the largest population decrease statewide, of 26% and 21% respectively.
  4. NC is growing more diverse. The Hispanic and Asian populations have both grown, and the white population dropped nearly five percentage points to 60.5%. We’ll be getting more demographic information from the census soon.
  5. 78% of our population is of voting age. That’s a lot of potential voters and advocates!

What about education, income, employment, and age? We’ll get more of that information incoming months, and we’ll update you again then. Why does that information matter? Social determinants of health. Take a look back at our posts from earlier this year!