Carteret County, North Carolina, USA

Carteret County stretches along North Carolina’s central coast, with Beaufort as its county seat and Morehead City as its largest community. Its roughly 75-mile shoreline includes sounds, estuaries, marshes and barrier islands extending toward Cape Lookout and the southern Outer Banks. Indigenous communities lived along these waters long before European settlement, and fishing, shipbuilding and the naval-stores trade shaped the county’s early maritime economy. Carteret County had about 70,500 residents in 2025. Commercial fishing, tourism, military activity, marine science, boatbuilding and coastal recreation remain central to its identity.