Rowan County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

1,090 ft 330 m960 ft 290 m890 ft 270 m760 ft 230 m630 ft 190 m560 ft 170 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

Rowan County averages about 750 ft (230 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 560 ft on the southeast side to 1,090 ft on Youngs Mountain.

Average elevation

750 ft 230 m

all land inside the county

Highest

1,090 ft 330 m

on Youngs Mountain

Lowest

560 ft 170 m

on the southeast side

Rowan County spans about 530 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.

Figure	Elevation
Average of all land	750 ft230 m
Highest point Inside the county, on Youngs Mountain (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height)	1,090 ft330 m
Lowest point Inside the county, on the southeast side	560 ft170 m

Elevation profile, south to north

19 mi south to north through Salisbury.

Topographic Map

Location: County in North Carolina, United States
Population: 153,384 2024 est.
Land area: 511.6 sq mi + 12.3 sq mi water
Density: 300 per sq mi
Time zone: Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region: Piedmont
Drains to: Atlantic Ocean

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

Iredell County900 ft
Davie County760 ft
Davidson County750 ft
Rowan County750 ft
Cabarrus County650 ft
Stanly County520 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Counties in North Carolina37th highest of 100
Counties in the United States1,929th highest of 3,151

Peaks and hills highest inside

Youngs Mountain, Rowan County1,090 ft
Dunn Mountain1,011 ft

All 12 towns in Rowan County by typical elevation

Faith870 ft
Landis830 ft
Enochville810 ft
China Grove800 ft
Granite Quarry780 ft
Cleveland780 ft
Rockwell760 ft
Gold Hill750 ft
Kannapolis partly730 ft
Salisbury730 ft
East Spencer710 ft
Spencer710 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; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
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, 400 ft at 35.7760° N, 80.5946° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
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. All public domain.