North Carolina Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
6,680 ft 2,035 m5,010 ft 1,530 m4,180 ft 1,275 m2,510 ft 765 m840 ft 255 m0 ft 0 m
Zoom in for contour lines
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- State area
- Fades everything outside the official state boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
North Carolina averages about 770 ft (235 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from sea level on Back Bay to 6,682 ft on Mount Mitchell.
Average elevation
770 ft 235 m
all land in North Carolina
Highest
6,682 ft 2,037 m
on Mount Mitchell
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Back Bay
North Carolina spans about 6,680 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
Under 1% of North Carolina's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 3% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 770 ft235 m |
| Highest point In North Carolina, on Mount Mitchell (NGS survey height) | 6,682 ft2,037 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Back Bay | 0 ft0 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
497 mi west to east through Charlotte.
Topographic Map
- Location
- State in the South Atlantic division of the South region, United States
- Population
- 11,046,024 2024 est.
- Land area
- 48,624.5 sq mi + 5,194.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 227 per sq mi
- Counties
- 100
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform regions
- Coastal Plain 44%, Piedmont 39%, Blue Ridge 17%
- Drains to
- Atlantic Ocean 83%, Gulf of America 17%
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring states sharing a border, by average
- Virginia1,020 ft
- Tennessee950 ft
- North Carolina770 ft
- Georgia510 ft
- South Carolina330 ft
Rankings by average elevation
- States in the United States35th highest of 52
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Mount Mitchell6,682 ft
- Kuwohi6,640 ft
- Richland Balsam6,400 ft
- Mount Lyn Lowry6,220 ft
- Cloudland Mountain6,210 ft
All 100 counties by average elevation
- Haywood County3,590 ft
- Avery County3,570 ft
- Jackson County3,380 ft
- Yancey County3,350 ft
- Watauga County3,320 ft
- Swain County3,240 ft
- Mitchell County3,210 ft
- Ashe County3,210 ft
- Macon County3,100 ft
- Alleghany County2,860 ft
- Transylvania County2,860 ft
- Graham County2,840 ft
- Clay County2,730 ft
- Buncombe County2,690 ft
- Madison County2,680 ft
- Henderson County2,430 ft
- Cherokee County2,130 ft
- McDowell County1,860 ft
- Caldwell County1,510 ft
- Wilkes County1,490 ft
- Burke County1,490 ft
- Polk County1,220 ft
- Surry County1,220 ft
- Alexander County1,200 ft
- Rutherford County1,120 ft
- Stokes County970 ft
- Catawba County970 ft
- Yadkin County950 ft
- Cleveland County900 ft
- Iredell County900 ft
- Lincoln County880 ft
- Forsyth County860 ft
- Guilford County780 ft
- Gaston County770 ft
- Davie County760 ft
- Davidson County750 ft
- Rowan County750 ft
- Rockingham County720 ft
- Mecklenburg County700 ft
- Cabarrus County650 ft
- Randolph County640 ft
- Alamance County610 ft
- Orange County580 ft
- Caswell County580 ft
- Union County570 ft
- Person County560 ft
- Stanly County520 ft
- Montgomery County520 ft
- Chatham County440 ft
- Granville County430 ft
- Moore County420 ft
- Vance County400 ft
- Durham County380 ft
- Richmond County340 ft
- Anson County340 ft
- Lee County330 ft
- Wake County330 ft
- Franklin County310 ft
- Warren County310 ft
- Hoke County280 ft
- Scotland County260 ft
- Harnett County250 ft
- Johnston County190 ft
- Nash County190 ft
- Cumberland County150 ft
- Robeson County140 ft
- Halifax County140 ft
- Sampson County130 ft
- Wilson County130 ft
- Wayne County120 ft
- Northampton County95 ft
- Duplin County95 ft
- Bladen County83 ft
- Greene County81 ft
- Edgecombe County79 ft
- Lenoir County77 ft
- Columbus County68 ft
- Pitt County48 ft
- Martin County48 ft
- Jones County45 ft
- Onslow County42 ft
- Hertford County42 ft
- Bertie County39 ft
- Brunswick County39 ft
- Pender County35 ft
- Gates County29 ft
- Craven County27 ft
- Beaufort County22 ft
- New Hanover County22 ft
- Chowan County19 ft
- Washington County13 ft
- Pamlico County13 ft
- Perquimans County12 ft
- Carteret County11 ft
- Pasquotank County9 ft
- Camden County8 ft
- Currituck County5 ft
- Hyde County3 ft
- Dare County3 ft
- Tyrrell County3 ft
All 8 tribal lands by average elevation
- Qualla Boundary2,870 ft
- Occaneechi-Saponi SDTSA670 ft
- Sappony SDTSA520 ft
- Haliwa-Saponi SDTSA240 ft
- Lumbee SDTSA170 ft
- Coharie SDTSA170 ft
- Waccamaw Siouan SDTSA69 ft
- Meherrin SDTSA42 ft
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census state boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 7 arc-second (≈710 ft, 216 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −250 ft at 35.6729° N, 77.6299° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- Nearby Places: neighboring states and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the state with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Counties: each one's average on its own grid (1 arc-second, coarser for the largest), the same figure its own page shows.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones; NOAA tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.