Hillsborough, NC Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
780 ft 240 m710 ft 215 m670 ft 205 m600 ft 180 m520 ft 160 m490 ft 150 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 500 ft
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.
- Town area
- Fades everything outside the official town limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Hillsborough sits at about 640 ft (195 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
640 ft 195 m
most residents: 550–680 ft
Lowest
490 ft 150 m
on the east side
Highest
780 ft 240 m
on the south side
Average
610 ft 185 m
all land inside town limits
Hillsborough spans about 290 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.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 640 ft195 m |
| Highest point Inside town limits, on the south side | 780 ft240 m |
| Lowest point Inside town limits, on the east side | 490 ft150 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Hillsborough | 540 ft165 m |
| Average of all land | 610 ft185 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
5.5 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- Town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States
- Population
- 9,773 2024 est.
- Land area
- 5.9 sq mi + 0.1 sq mi water
- Density
- 1,643 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 36.0754° N, 79.0997° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Landform region
- Piedmont
- Drains to
- Eno River → Neuse River → Atlantic Ocean
- ZIP codes 1
- 27278
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Mebane650 ft
- Hillsborough640 ft
- Green Level630 ft
- Efland630 ft
- Woodlawn600 ft
- Haw River580 ft
- Swepsonville570 ft
- Rougemont550 ft
- Carrboro460 ft
- Chapel Hill400 ft
- Durham350 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in North Carolina284th highest of 782
- Towns in Orange Countyhighest of 4
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Occoneechee Mountain860 ft
- Bald Mountain, Orange County760 ft
- Scarlett Hill760 ft
- Blackwood Mountain740 ft
- Currie Hill690 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the town 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 town 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, 480 ft at 36.0707° N, 79.0810° 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); BTS time zones. All public domain.