New Hanover County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of New Hanover County, North Carolina, shaded from 4 ft below sea level on the north side to 150 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
150 ft 45 m110 ft 35 m94 ft 29 m55 ft 17 m16 ft 5 m−4 ft −1 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

New Hanover County averages about 22 ft (7 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 4 ft below sea level on the north side to 150 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation
22 ft 7 m
all land inside the county
Highest
150 ft 45 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
−4 ft −1 m
on the north side

New Hanover County spans about 154 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.

8% of New Hanover County's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 11% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map

FigureElevation
Average of all land22 ft7 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northwest side
150 ft45 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the north side
−4 ft−1 m

Elevation profile, west to east

14 mi west to east through Wilmington.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of New Hanover County, North Carolina, shaded from 4 ft below sea level on the north side to 150 ft on the northwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 10 ft (3 m).
Location
County in North Carolina, United States
Population
243,333 2024 est.
Land area
192.3 sq mi + 136.6 sq mi water
Density
1,265 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain 90%
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. Brunswick County39 ft
  2. Pender County35 ft
  3. New Hanover County22 ft

Rankings by average elevation

All 18 towns in New Hanover County by typical elevation
  1. Murraysville42 ft
  2. Northchase36 ft
  3. Blue Clay Farms34 ft
  4. Wilmington30 ft
  5. Kings Grant29 ft
  6. Wrightsboro28 ft
  7. Skippers Corner26 ft
  8. Hightsville25 ft
  9. Myrtle Grove24 ft
  10. Porters Neck24 ft
  11. Silver Lake22 ft
  12. Ogden19 ft
  13. Bayshore17 ft
  14. Castle Hayne16 ft
  15. Kure Beach16 ft
  16. Carolina Beach12 ft
  17. Sea Breeze9 ft
  18. Wrightsville Beach6 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.
  • 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.