NC in Focus
Keep up with our latest demographic insights
We recently worked with the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the governments of the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and Orange County to streamline existing processes for acquiring, updating, and maintaining the data they use for their community reports and presentations. As part of that work, we've released a series of reports looking at demographic and economic trends in Orange County, NC. Here are some highlights from Carolina Demography's report on community…
We recently worked with the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, the governments of the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and Orange County to streamline existing processes for acquiring, updating, and maintaining the data they use for their community reports and presentations. As part of that work, we've released a series of reports looking at demographic and economic trends in Orange County, NC. Here are some highlights from Carolina Demography's report on population…
North Carolina plays a major role in our end-of-year holidays: we lead the nation in sweet potato production and are also one of the largest producers of Christmas trees, producing over 20% of the nation’s real trees. This year, in the midst of the pandemic, tree prices have risen dramatically as a result of so-called “panic buying”. If you’ve waited to pick up a tree, move quickly! Before we break for the holidays ourselves, we’d…
The Thanksgiving holiday is important to North Carolina’s agriculture, as we continue to lead in sweet potato production across the nation. Once relegated to the holidays primarily, the sweet potato has now been embraced as an important staple in healthy diets. In fact, sweet potatoes were ranked among the top ten best foods to eat regularly, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Whether you serve North Carolina’s state vegetable year-round or…
Active-duty military personnel and veterans have a significant presence in North Carolina. North Carolina is home to two major military bases—Fort Bragg (Army) and Camp Lejeune (Marine Corps)—in addition to two Marine Corps Air Stations at New River and Cherry Point and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. As a result, more North Carolina adults are veterans than the national average: 7.9% versus 6.9% nationwide. In 2019, nearly 642,000 veterans lived in North Carolina according to the most recent…
Nationally, there are 384 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), which are defined as an economically integrated set of counties with a core central city with a population of 50,000 or more. They range in size from Carson City, Nevada (55,916) to the New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA (19,216,182) which crosses New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Within North Carolina, there are 15 unique metro regions, ranging from Goldsboro (123,131) to Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia (2,636,883 across NC and SC). With a combined population of 283 million, nearly seven of…
Nationally, rural counties reported a record number for new COVID-19 infections between September 20-26, according to a recent report from the Daily Yonder. More than half of rural counties nationwide—990—were in the red zone, meaning that they had more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents in a one-week period. [alert type= "info" title = "Defining the 'Red Zone'" body= "According to the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the red zone corresponds to 101 or…
This is part of our series looking at NC's registered voters. Other stories include an overview of NC's voters and an in-depth look at NC's Democratic voters. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had 7 million registered voters. Of these, 2.1 million or 30% were registered as a Republican. Age Younger voters are the least likely to register as Republican, reflecting their higher affinity for registering unaffiliated. Just 23% of voters ages 18-34 are…
This is part of our series looking at NC's registered voters. Other stories include an overview of NC's voters and an in-depth look at NC's Republican voters. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had 7 million registered voters. Of these, 2.5 million or 36% were registered as a Democrat. Age Older voters are the most likely to register as a Democrat, partly reflecting the legacy of the “Solid South.” Just over 43% of voters…
This is the first in a three-part series on North Carolina's voters. Today, we take a look at North Carolina's 7 million registered voters. In the coming days, we will take a look at North Carolina's registered Republicans and Democrats, respectively. As of July 25th, 2020, North Carolina had about 7.8 million voting-eligible adults and 7 million registered voters. Their partisan affiliation was roughly split between three groups: Democrat, unaffiliated, and Republican, with a slight…
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