3 replies to this topic

[krazeeboi]

Wilmington's been growing at a pretty rapid pace lately, and the latest Census numbers bear that out. Here are the city and MSA stats with growth amounts in raw numbers and percentages:

Wilmington city: 106,476 (+30,638) 40.4%
Wilmington MSA: 362,315 (+87,783) 32%

Those are pretty impressive numbers. Within two decades, I'm sure that MSA number will hit half a million.

[NcSc74]

Yeah considering the recession I think the area did well.  Its my assumption that regions with stable heavy and light industries staved off major impacts.  Maybe that is why Wilmington is growing still. I didnt look in to all the numbers but I'm curious about where the growth came from?  I have a feeling that its domestic migration from depressed areas in the east.

[krazeeboi]

I'm pretty sure a lot of that growth is coming from retirees, including halfbacks from Florida.

[NCMike1981]

I lived there for 3 years and noticed a major part of the population was college students and retirees. The job market has always been a little weaker compared to the bigger cities in NC...unless you were looking to work retail or something related to the service industry (hotel/restaurants/tourism related). I'm sure things have changed some since I was there ('99-'02) as the city has grown considerably in the last 10 years. Traffic was also a pain, especially on the weekends in the summer when the roads in town were clogged with beachbound tourists. I tended to use the smaller backroads in town as College and Market streets got pretty frustrating at times. I'm sure that the opening of I-140 has helped alleviate some of the Hwy 17 traffic...