About Greenville

Some places have what it takes to help write the story of your life, to help you create and live your life to the fullest: opportunities, people and experiences that open minds and doors; activities that enrich and entertain. Places so welcoming that you feel you’re in the presence of family and friends, and that everywhere you turn, you find yourself in good company.

As the hub of eastern North Carolina, Greenville is that place.

Here, life’s a graceful balance of front-porch friendly and business-world sharp, a balance lit up and alive with all the amenities of a metropolitan university town. Where we enjoy the company of our neighbors on summer nights, talking on the porch about the day’s news and sports scores from the latest Pirate’s game, until someone flips a coin to see who’ll run out for barbeque.

Walking through the streets of Greenville, you see it has its share of art galleries, museums and festivals that delight; or, close by, the campus of East Carolina University calls to art and culture lovers with its worldly offering of musical concerts, theatrical and dance productions, travel films and lectures. For students with the fire of the future shining in their eyes, ready to turn their dreams loose, the campus calls to them in another voice.

Yes, you’ll find what you’re looking for here. But in many cases (and maybe this is just as important) what you didn’t even know you were looking for. That’s the way it is in Greenville. What makes it tick is how it makes people tick. As the cultural, educational and economic hub of the region, it’s expansive; it rewards the curious imagination, the entrepreneurial mind.

If you’re a person with big ideas and big ambitions, Greenville is good company. The smart thinking, hard work and optimism that once made Greenville a leading marketer of tobacco are still prevalent, though now guiding the area’s technology focus with its many bioscience and robotics breakthroughs. No surprise, these victories are trumpeted with as much enthusiasm as the local sports team’s trophy season.

Located just inland off the North Carolina coast, East of I-95, over 30 parks grace the landscape of Greenville and Pitt County. So if you’re an outdoor enthusiast, you’ll find enough adventure and scenic beauty here to fill up the canvas of your days, and plenty of like-minded people who share your respect for the grandeur of nature, the intoxicating fragrance of our Magnolia trees, picnicking under the shade of oaks, fishing at sundown, or hiking down a path that leads you not to the trail’s end, but to the conclusion that this is where you belong.

True, in some parts of the world, when you say the word “hub” people think “crowded”, “faceless”, “too noisy to hear myself think”. But we’re different.

There are crowds … parades down Evans Street. An annual Halloween street party. Students streaming to classes. Participants at major meeting or conferences. Or onlookers gathered down at the Extreme Park or Five Points Plaza to watch BMX bike pros practicing for an event.

But they’re not faceless crowds.

There is noise … live music rising from the campus nightlife scene, the hub-bub around the Convention Center, or when the Pirates rally to make the winning score, nothing short of pandemonium.

But our noise makes your spirits soar.

In fact, you could say that the hustle and bustle of life in Greenville is conducive to a higher level of thinking and inspiration. One thing’s for sure, the first thought on your mind will be how glad you are to be in Greenville, North Carolina, smack dab in the middle of such good company.

THINGS TO DO:
Looking to find out how you can enjoy yourself in Greenville? Click here to learn more.

AREA:
Greenville-Pitt County is centrally situated to serve the largest concentration of population and industry in eastern North Carolina (more than 815,000 people within 45 miles).

LOCATION:
Greenville (39.09 square miles) and Pitt County (656.52 square miles) are located in the north central coastal plains region of Eastern North Carolina, 85 miles east of Raleigh, 87 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean, 157 miles from Richmond VA, and 265 miles south of Washington DC.

GEOGRAPHY: 
Pitt County covers 656.52 square miles of prime agricultural land in Eastern North Carolina. The county's highest point is 126.4 feet above sea level, in the northwest part of the county.

POPULATION:
According to the latest U.S. Census estimates, the population estimate for Greenville is 89,233.

Average cost of housing (Greenville area 2018-2022  $192,900)

COST OF LIVING:

Click here to learn more about Greenville's cost of living.

ALTITUDE:
64 to 75 feet. Rolling topography. Well-drained.

GOVERNMENT:
CLICK HERE to view the City of Greenville's form of government.
CLICK HERE to view Pitt County's forms of government.

STREETS:
Total - 248.35 miles
Paved - 247.61 miles
Unpaved - .74 miles

UTILITIES:
Municipally-owned power, water, sewer and natural gas services - Greenville Utilities Commission (252) 752-7166.

INDUSTRIES:
Products include boats, pharmaceutical products, electrical capacitors, plastic brushes, lumber, millwork, eggs, stock feed, armature and motor works, leaf tobacco, fertilizer, soft drinks, bakery, dairy and meat products, monuments, machine works, concrete products, daily newspaper, drill bits, fabrics, finished clothing, fork-lift trucks, furnaces, disposable diapers, bed-liners, and rack and pinion components.

EDUCATION:
Greenville is the home of East Carolina University, the third largest university in the state (28,718 enrollment). ECU is home to the Brody School of Medicine that offers a four-year medical doctor degree as well as six PhD programs. There are 99 undergraduate degree tracks and 104 graduate-level programs at ECU. Colleges include: Arts & Sciences; Business; Education; Fine Arts & Communication; Engineering and Technology; Human Ecology; Health and Human Performance; Allied Health Sciences; Nursing, and Honors. Schools at ECU include: Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Graduate. ECU is a Division I school and a member of the American Athletic Conference.

Another asset to the Greenville education community is Pitt Community College. With a main campus in Winterville and a satellite campus in Greenville, PCC offers technical skill training, a two-year college transfer degree, a two-year technical degree, a one-year vocation program, a short-term certificate program, and a continuing education program. PCC offers special programs to meet industrial and business training needs with state-supported commitments to industrial training.

MEDICINE:
With 974 licensed beds, ECU Health Medical Center is a Level I trauma center and tertiary care referral center that offers extensive inpatient and outpatient services to more than 1.4 million people across 29 counties. The medical center, based in Greenville, is the flagship hospital of ECU Health, a 1,512-bed health system affiliated with East Carolina University and the Brody School of Medicine.