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Burke County, North Carolina
Burke County sits in the Blue Ridge foothills, anchored by Morganton, its seat, with Valdese, Drexel, and Glen Alpine as its smaller mill towns. The economy has shifted from furniture and textile manufacturing toward healthcare and light industry, while Lake James draws separate lakefront and second-home demand from the older mill-town housing stock, adding waterfront zoning and slope terrain to development decisions.
Open the live Burke County map →
Burke County at a glance
- 89,000Population (2025)
- MorgantonCounty seat
- 506 sq miLand area
- 176 / sq miDensity
- $59,000Median household income
- $185,000Median home value
What the live Burke County map shows
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- City Boundaries: 10
- School Boundaries - Elementary: 15
- School Boundaries - Middle: 6
- School Boundaries - High: 5
- Congressional Districts: 1
- Soils: 118
- State House Districts: 7
- State Senate Districts: 5
Cities and towns in Burke County
Connelly Springs, Drexel, Glen Alpine, Hickory, Hildebran, Long View, Morganton, Rhodhiss, Rutherford College, Valdese.
Neighboring counties
- Caldwell County, NC · map
- McDowell County, NC · map
- Avery County, NC · map
- Catawba County, NC · map
- Cleveland County, NC · map
- Rutherford County, NC · map
- Lincoln County, NC · map