Demographic Characteristics
of the City of Hickory

With a population of 38,874, the City serves as a trade, manufacturing, distribution and service center to approximately 302,000 people due to its location at the geographic center of a four-county region and its ready access to major transportation facilities. Over the past two decades, the City's economy has increasingly diversified to manufacturing trade and services. Principal industries now include cable and feber optics, wholesale grocery, retail trade, communications, utilities, health care, textiles, real estate, and furniture. The City ranks ninth among North Carolina cities in retail sales, and is first among these nine by a wide margin on sales per capita basis.  

The principal taxpayers for Hickory include Corning Cable Systems,  communications industry; Merchants Distributors Inc., grocery wholesale; Valley Hills Mall LLC, retail; Duke Energy Corporation, utilities; Central Telephone Company, communications; Amireit (Frye) Inc./Frye Regional Medical Center, health care; Shurtape Technologies, manufacturing; Walter Stephen Ikerd, retail/real estate; American Medical International, health care; Hickory Ridge Associates, shopping center developer.

The City of Hickory provides access to many social and economic resources.  Hickory offers extensive educational opportunities with two colleges in the area: Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) and Lenoir-Rhyne College, a fully accredited liberal arts college affiliated with the North Carolina Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.  The citizens of Hickory and the surrounding area enjoy minor league baseball entertainment at L.P. Frans Stadium, home of the Hickory Crawdads.  The SALT block (Sciences, Arts and Literature Together) provides wide-ranging cultural experiences for adults and children alike. Hickory also offers significant resources in visual and performing arts, such as Hickory Community Theatre, its own regional symphony orchestra, and several historic sites and museums.