Hickory, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Hickory, North Carolina, shaded from 820 ft on the east side to 1,230 ft on the west side
Elevation
1,230 ft 375 m1,130 ft 345 m1,080 ft 330 m980 ft 295 m870 ft 265 m820 ft 250 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 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

Hickory sits at about 1,090 ft (330 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
1,090 ft 330 m
most residents: 1,010–1,140 ft
Lowest
820 ft 250 m
on the east side
Highest
1,230 ft 375 m
on the west side
Average
1,050 ft 320 m
all land inside city limits

Hickory spans about 410 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
1,090 ft330 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the west side
1,230 ft375 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the east side
820 ft250 m
Town center
USGS map point for Hickory
1,150 ft350 m
Airport (HKY)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways
1,190 ft363 m
Average of all land1,050 ft320 m

Elevation profile, west to east

8.7 mi west to east through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Hickory, North Carolina, shaded from 820 ft on the east side to 1,230 ft on the west side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 40 ft (12 m).
Location
City in Catawba, Burke and Caldwell counties, North Carolina, United States
Population
45,081 2024 est.
Land area
33.4 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
Density
1,351 per sq mi
Coordinates
35.7332° N, 81.3412° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Piedmont
Drains to
Catawba River → Wateree River → Santee River → Atlantic Ocean
Airport
Hickory Regional (HKY) 1,190 ft
ZIP codes 4
28601 28602 28613 28658
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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. Granite Falls1,140 ft
  2. Hildebran1,130 ft
  3. Long View1,110 ft
  4. Hickory1,090 ft
  5. St. Stephens1,070 ft
  6. Rhodhiss1,070 ft
  7. Mountain View1,060 ft
  8. Bethlehem1,050 ft
  9. Northlakes1,020 ft
  10. Conover990 ft
  11. Brookford960 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Calloway Peak5,930 ft
  • Beech Mountain5,506 ft
  • Dobson Knob3,705 ft
  • Icy Knob2,980 ft
  • Pores Knob2,673 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, 700 ft at 35.7171° N, 81.3010° 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.