Charlotte, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Charlotte, North Carolina, shaded from 270 ft on the southwest side to 880 ft on the north side
Elevation
880 ft 265 m720 ft 220 m650 ft 200 m500 ft 150 m340 ft 105 m270 ft 80 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.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Charlotte sits at about 700 ft (215 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
700 ft 215 m
most residents: 620–770 ft
Lowest
270 ft 80 m
on the southwest side
Highest
880 ft 265 m
on the north side
Average
690 ft 210 m
all land inside city limits

Charlotte spans about 610 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
700 ft215 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the north side
880 ft265 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the southwest side
270 ft80 m
Town center
USGS map point for Charlotte
760 ft235 m
Airport (CLT)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways
748 ft228 m
Average of all land690 ft210 m

Elevation profile, south to north

23 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Charlotte, North Carolina, shaded from 270 ft on the southwest side to 880 ft on the north side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 100 ft (30 m).
Location
City in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States
Population
943,476 2024 est.
Land area
313.0 sq mi + 2.0 sq mi water
Density
3,014 per sq mi
Coordinates
35.2271° N, 80.8431° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Piedmont
Drains to
Catawba River → Wateree River → Santee River → Atlantic Ocean
Airport
Charlotte/Douglas International (CLT) 748 ft
ZIP codes 31
31 ZIP codes28105 28134 28202 28203 28204 28205 28206 28207 28208 28209 28210 28211 28212 28213 28214 28215 28216 28217 28223 28226 28227 28244 28262 28269 28270 28273 28274 28277 28278 28280 28282
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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, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Huntersville740 ft
  2. Mint Hill720 ft
  3. Matthews710 ft
  4. Charlotte700 ft
  5. Stallings680 ft
  6. Belmont670 ft
  7. Mount Holly650 ft
  8. Cramerton640 ft
  9. McAdenville620 ft
  10. Harrisburg610 ft
  11. Pineville580 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Icy Knob2,980 ft
  • Pores Knob2,673 ft
  • Berry Mountain, Gaston County920 ft
  • Capps Hill850 ft
  • Red Hill, Union County710 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
  • 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, 230 ft at 35.1215° N, 80.8982° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) 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).
  • 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 (FAA airport elevation, 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 (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.