Brunswick County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Brunswick County, North Carolina, shaded from sea level on the Atlantic Ocean to 130 ft near the middle
Elevation
130 ft 40 m95 ft 29 m79 ft 24 m48 ft 14 m16 ft 5 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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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.
County area
Fades everything outside the official county boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

Brunswick County averages about 39 ft (12 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from sea level on the Atlantic Ocean to 130 ft near the middle.

Average elevation
39 ft 12 m
all land inside the county
Highest
130 ft 40 m
near the middle
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on the Atlantic Ocean

Brunswick County spans about 130 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.

4% of Brunswick County's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 2% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

FigureElevation
Average of all land39 ft12 m
Highest point
Inside the county, near the middle
130 ft40 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets the Atlantic Ocean
0 ft0 m

Elevation profile, west to east

14 mi west to east through Leland.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Brunswick County, North Carolina, shaded from sea level on the Atlantic Ocean to 130 ft near the middle
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
County in North Carolina, United States
Population
167,112 2024 est.
Land area
849.5 sq mi + 200.0 sq mi water
Density
197 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain 97%
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Columbus County68 ft
  2. Horry County, SC47 ft
  3. Brunswick County39 ft
  4. Pender County35 ft
  5. New Hanover County22 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Sand Hill, Brunswick County63 ft
  • Sand Hill, Brunswick County56 ft
All 19 towns in Brunswick County by typical elevation
  1. Northwest57 ft
  2. Sandy Creek54 ft
  3. Boiling Spring Lakes47 ft
  4. Carolina Shores42 ft
  5. Bolivia41 ft
  6. St. James40 ft
  7. Shallotte35 ft
  8. Calabash33 ft
  9. Varnamtown28 ft
  10. Sunset Beach26 ft
  11. Leland25 ft
  12. Belville22 ft
  13. Southport20 ft
  14. Navassa17 ft
  15. Oak Island16 ft
  16. Bald Head Island10 ft
  17. Ocean Isle Beach5 ft
  18. Holden Beach4 ft
  19. Caswell Beach1 ft
How we measure
  • Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census county boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
  • Highest and lowest: the highest land cell. Lowest: the lowest land cell; 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, −9 ft at 34.2815° N, 78.0126° 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 counties 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 county 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).
  • Towns: each town's typical elevation (population-weighted median of its own 2020 blocks at 1 arc-second); a town is listed when any of its 2020 residents live in the county.
  • 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.