North Carolina History

During the 1580s, 20 years before English colonists famously settled in Jamestown, the "Lost Colony of Roanoke Island" mysteriously disappeared off the coast of what was to become North Carolina. Other than the legend, the only existing remnant of this early settlement in the Americas is Dare County along the Outer Banks, named for Virginia Dare, the first English child born on this side of the Atlantic.

NC Demographics Information

Despite the tragic unknown fate of those original colonists, people kept coming to North Carolina, and they still do in tremendous numbers. Currently one of the fastest growing states in the nation, North Carolina's population increased by 10 percent from 2000 to 2006, averaging nearly 150,000 new residents each year. Mostly coming from other countries and other areas of the U.S., they pushed NC past New Jersey to become the 10th most populous state, with 8.8 million people in 2006.

North Carolina Geography and Real Estate Information

North Carolina offers a high quality of life, attracting transplants with its varied topography, with Appalachian Mountains in the west, rolling hills in the central Piedmont, and coastal plain in the east. The state enjoys a generally mild climate, a wide variety of recreational opportunities, and affordable real estate. Of the five largest cities in North Carolina, only Raleigh had a median home value higher than the national average, with Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro and Winston Salem house prices significantly lower. The affluent Raleigh suburb of Cary, however, home to many highly educated and high-income professionals, was more expensive.

NC Economy

In addition to its comfortable lifestyle and affordability, North Carolina's growth is attributable to its strong job market, particularly in technology industries, sciences, and education. North Carolina's evolution from a rural tobacco farming state into a high-tech research center began with Research Triangle Park, created in 1959 between Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Research Triangle Park benefits from its proximity to nearby Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University. More than 100 corporations, including such giants as IBM, Cisco Systems, Glaxo Smithkline, and Biogen, maintain facilities employing 39,000 people at Research Triangle Park. Another such center, the 350-acre North Carolina Research Campus, is under development in Kannapolis, a Charlotte suburb, and the Piedmont Triad Research Park in Winston-Salem is expanding.

North Carolina's modern new economy encompasses more than science and technology. Charlotte, its largest city, is a major banking center, second only to New York, and the state now ranks third in the nation as a filmmaking location. The coastal city of Wilmington, home of Screen Gems Studios, dominates the film industry in NC, but film studios also operate in five other cities.

The old agrarian economy remains important to North Carolina. The state leads the nation in the production of cigarettes, textiles and wood furniture. However, in recent years nearly one-fifth of NC's manufacturing jobs have been lost as companies relocated overseas.