Raleigh, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Raleigh, North Carolina, shaded from 140 ft on the southeast side to 560 ft on the northwest side
Elevation
560 ft 170 m450 ft 140 m400 ft 125 m300 ft 90 m200 ft 60 m140 ft 45 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

Raleigh sits at about 320 ft (100 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
320 ft 100 m
most residents: 230–430 ft
Lowest
140 ft 45 m
on the southeast side
Highest
560 ft 170 m
on the northwest side
Average
320 ft 100 m
all land inside city limits

Raleigh spans about 420 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
320 ft100 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the northwest side
560 ft170 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the southeast side
140 ft45 m
Town center
USGS map point for Raleigh
320 ft95 m
Airport (RDU)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 0.9 mi northwest of the city limits
435 ft133 m
Average of all land320 ft100 m

Elevation profile, west to east

11 mi west to east through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Raleigh, North Carolina, shaded from 140 ft on the southeast side to 560 ft on the northwest side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
City in Wake and Durham counties, North Carolina, United States
Population
499,825 2024 est.
Land area
153.3 sq mi + 1.1 sq mi water
Density
3,260 per sq mi
Coordinates
35.7721° N, 78.6386° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
Piedmont
Drains to
Neuse River → Atlantic Ocean
Airport
Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) 435 ft
ZIP codes 20
27529 27545 27560 27601 27603 27604 27605 27606 27607 27608 27609 27610 27612 27613 27614 27615 27616 27617 27695 27697
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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. Cary390 ft
  2. Rolesville390 ft
  3. Holly Springs380 ft
  4. Apex370 ft
  5. Morrisville340 ft
  6. Raleigh320 ft
  7. Garner320 ft
  8. Wendell300 ft
  9. Clayton290 ft
  10. Archer Lodge280 ft
  11. Knightdale270 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Couch Mountain, Orange County640 ft
  • Nunn Mountain620 ft
  • Piney Mountain, Orange County510 ft
  • Adam Mountain480 ft
  • High Hill, Orange County470 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).
  • 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. All public domain.