Onslow County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Onslow County, North Carolina, shaded from 4 ft below sea level on the south side to 210 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
210 ft 65 m150 ft 45 m130 ft 40 m75 ft 23 m22 ft 7 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

Onslow County averages about 42 ft (13 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 4 ft below sea level on the south side to 210 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation
42 ft 13 m
all land inside the county
Highest
210 ft 65 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
−4 ft −1 m
on the south side

Onslow County spans about 214 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.

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

FigureElevation
Average of all land42 ft13 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northwest side
210 ft65 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the south side
−4 ft−1 m

Elevation profile, west to east

31 mi west to east through Jacksonville.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Onslow County, North Carolina, shaded from 4 ft below sea level on the south side to 210 ft on the northwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
County in North Carolina, United States
Population
212,954 2024 est.
Land area
762.1 sq mi + 143.1 sq mi water
Density
279 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Coastal Plain 96%
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. Duplin County95 ft
  2. Jones County45 ft
  3. Onslow County42 ft
  4. Pender County35 ft
  5. Carteret County11 ft

Rankings by average elevation

All 19 towns in Onslow County by typical elevation
  1. Catherine Lake74 ft
  2. Holly Ridge46 ft
  3. Richlands41 ft
  4. Kellum41 ft
  5. Pumpkin Center41 ft
  6. Dixon40 ft
  7. Belgrade40 ft
  8. Southwest36 ft
  9. Verona36 ft
  10. Piney Green33 ft
  11. Hubert32 ft
  12. Half Moon30 ft
  13. Bear Creek28 ft
  14. Swansboro27 ft
  15. Folkstone26 ft
  16. Jacksonville26 ft
  17. Sneads Ferry19 ft
  18. Surf City partly10 ft
  19. North Topsail Beach0 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.