When the 2013 edition of one my very favorite books, “The World Almanac and Book of Facts,” arrived on the bookshelves the other day, it reminded me that it has been several years since I updated my mini-state almanac. With the hope that someone will take up the challenge of giving us a printed and complete “North Carolina Almanac and Book of Facts,” here are a few items such book might contain.

The 2010 census reported the state’s population to be 9,535,483, up from 8,049,313 in 2000, 6,628,637 in 1990, and 5,881,766 in 1980. Still growing, the estimate for 2011 was 9,656,401.

25 Largest Cities and Towns

City (2010 rank, 2000 rank) 2000 2010 2011 est.
Charlotte (1, 1) 540,828 731,424 751,087
Raleigh (2, 2) 276,093 403,892 416,468
Greensboro (3, 3) 223,891 269,666 273,425
Durham (4, 4) 187,035 228,330 233,252
Winston-Salem (5, 5) 185,776 229,617 232,385
Fayetteville (6, 6) 121,015 200,564 203,945
Cary (7, 7) 94,536 135,234 139,633
Wilmington (8, 9) 75,838 106,476 108,297
High Point (9, 8) 85,839 104,371 105,753
Greenville (10, 13) 60,476 84,554 86,017
Asheville (11, 10) 68,889 83,393 84,458
Concord (12, 14) 55,977 79,066 80,597
Gastonia (13, 12) 66,277 71,741 72,068
Jacksonville (14, 11) 66,715 70,145 70,801
Chapel Hill (15, 16) 48,715 57,233 58,011
Rocky Mount (16, 15) 55,893 57,477 57,433
Burlington (17, 17) 44,917 49,963 50,925
Wilson (18, 18) 44,405 49,167 49,297
Huntersville (19, 24) 24,960 46,773 48,048
Kannapolis (20, 21) 36,910 42,625 43,242
Hickory (21, 20) 37,222 40,010 39,965
Apex (22, 33) 20,212 37,476 38,702
Goldsboro (23, 19) 39,043 36,437 36,743
Indian Trail (24,*) 11,905 33,518 34,223
Salisbury (25, 22) 26,559 33,662 33,586
 

Geography

Total Area: 53,821 square miles. Land area: 48,617 square miles. Water area: 5,103 square miles. Coastline length: 301 miles. Shoreline length: 3,375 miles.

North Carolina Firms in Fortune 500 (Rank 2012)

Bank of America (13), Lowe’s (54), Nucor (138), Duke Energy (186), BB&T Corporation (267), VF Corp. (277), Progress Energy (286), Family Dollar Stores (301), Reynolds American (302), Goodrich (319), Sonic Automotive (330), Pantry (347), Laboratory Corp. of America (443), SPX Corporation (446)
(Note that Progress Energy, on this year’s list, and Wachovia, on prior year’s lists, are North Carolina’s losses.)

Major Private Employers

(Ranked by Number of Employees in North Carolina, 2011)
Wal-Mart (1), Duke University (2), Food Lion (3), Wells Fargo Bank (4), Lowes Home Centers (5), Bank Of America (6), Eagle Medical Center (7), Harris Teeter (8), International Business Machines (9), Smithfield Foods, Inc. (10), Branch Banking & Trust (11), United Parcel Service Inc. (12), Target Stores (13), North Carolina Baptist Hospitals (14), USAir (15), WakeMed Health&Hospitials (16), AT&T Services (17), Ingles Markets (18), Lowes Food Stores (19), and Moses H Cone Memorial Hospital (20).

Top 30 Museums and Historic Attractions in North Carolina in 2010

(According to Carolina Publishing Associates which publishes the annual Carolina Heritage Guide)
Biltmore, Asheville, 1,069,359
Fort Macon Historic Site, Atlantic Beach, 799,322
North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro, 755,531
NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, 708,398
Fort Fisher State Historic Site, Kure Beach, 618,373
Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh, 570,793
Discovery Place, Charlotte, 530,423
Wright Brothers Memorial, Kill Devils Hills, 478,391
Museum of Life and Science, Durham, 433,018
NC Aquarium- Fort Fisher, Kure Beach, 429,883
NC Aquarium, Pine Knoll Shores, Pine Knoll Shores, 387,039
North Carolina Arboretum, Asheville, 371,000
North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, 324,200
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 320,388
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Manteo, 305,711
Natural Science Center, Greensboro, 290,928
NC Aquarium- Roanoke Island, Manteo, 288,000
Grandfather Mountain, Linville, 255,000
Chimney Rock, Chimney Rock, 219,221
Battleship North Carolina, Wilmington, 209,039
NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, 202,400
North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort, 185,551
Cherokee Cultural District, Cherokee, 183,353
Catawba Science Center, Hickory, 177,067
Linville Caverns, Marion, 170,543
Roanoke Island Festival Park, Manteo, 140,826
Greensboro Children’s Museum, Greensboro, 132,805
Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens, New Bern, 121,053
Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, Belmont, 106,300
Billy Graham Library, Charlotte, 103,886

 

NORTH CAROLINA BOOKWATCH — NOTE SCHEDULE CHANGE

-This weekend the North Carolina Bookwatch schedule changes and the program will air on Sunday, January 6, at 12 noon, and Thursday, January 10, at 5 p.m. The first guest in the new time slot will be Durham writer and historian David Cecelski, author of “The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War.”

-David Cecelski’s “The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War” is an important contribution to the histories of the Civil War and the struggle for Civil Rights. The central character, Galloway, was an escaped slave from Wilmington, who became a James Bond-like agent for the Union Army. After the war, he turned his charisma and savvy to politics and ran circles around his white fellow legislators. Cecelski’s great storytelling gifts make this biography better reading than much of today’s historic fiction.

-A grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council provides crucial support for North Carolina Bookwatch.

-Bookwatch Classics (programs from earlier years) airs Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. on UNC-MX, a digital cable system channel (TWC #172 or #4.4).

-The January 9 guest is Elizabeth Spencer talking about her collection of stories in the Modern Library’s “The Southern Woman