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New census figures show NC's older and Hispanic populations grew by large percentages

Map shows U.S. counties
U.S. Census Bureau
Older adults did outnumber children in nearly half of the U.S. counties in 2024, including most of the North Carolina High Country, but statewide, children still outnumber older North Carolinians.

According to new census figures covering the period from 2020 to 2024, North Carolina’s population has topped 11 million.

Part of the state’s growth can be explained by a boom in the Hispanic population, which is up by about 18 percent. That’s more than four times the growth rate of non-Hispanics.

North Carolina’s senior population is also booming.

The 65 and older group grew by 14 percent in the Tar Heel state. That’s far above the national growth of older Americans, which ticked up by about 3 percent.

Demographers say the increase is partly driven by retirees seeking homes in the mountains and at the coast.

The under-18 cohort in the state grew as well, but by less than 2 percent.

Children still outnumber older North Carolinians, even if the growth rate is smaller.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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