Wake County, NC Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Wake County, 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 120 m300 ft 90 m190 ft 60 m140 ft 40 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

Wake County averages about 330 ft (100 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 140 ft on the southeast side to 560 ft on the northwest side.

Average elevation
330 ft 100 m
all land inside the county
Highest
560 ft 170 m
on the northwest side
Lowest
140 ft 40 m
on the southeast side

Wake County spans about 420 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.

FigureElevation
Average of all land330 ft100 m
Highest point
Inside the county, on the northwest side
560 ft170 m
Lowest point
Inside the county, on the southeast side
140 ft40 m

Elevation profile, west to east

34 mi west to east through Raleigh.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Wake County, North Carolina, shaded from 140 ft on the southeast side to 560 ft on the northwest side
County boundary (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 40 ft (12 m).
Location
County in North Carolina, United States
Population
1,232,444 2024 est.
Land area
834.8 sq mi + 22.2 sq mi water
Density
1,476 per sq mi
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform regions
Piedmont 82%, Coastal Plain 18%
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring counties sharing a border, by average

  1. Chatham County440 ft
  2. Granville County430 ft
  3. Durham County380 ft
  4. Wake County330 ft
  5. Franklin County310 ft
  6. Harnett County250 ft
  7. Johnston County190 ft

Rankings by average elevation

Peaks and hills highest inside

  • Adam Mountain480 ft
All 14 towns in Wake County by typical elevation
  1. Cary390 ft
  2. Rolesville390 ft
  3. Fuquay-Varina380 ft
  4. Holly Springs380 ft
  5. Apex370 ft
  6. Durham partly350 ft
  7. Morrisville340 ft
  8. Wake Forest320 ft
  9. Raleigh320 ft
  10. Zebulon320 ft
  11. Garner320 ft
  12. Wendell300 ft
  13. Angier partly290 ft
  14. Knightdale270 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.
  • 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, 71 ft at 35.7062° N, 78.5799° 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.