Guilford County

by Bryan Williams
Fall 2001

Guilford county is a place where I have spent most of my adolescent life and for that reason I have choose to research and learn some important facts about the place I have lived for the past 12 years.

Guilford County is one of the largest and most populated counties in the state. It is part of the 11 County Piedmont Triad regions, which has a population of 1.2 million. It is one of the most centralized counties in the state in the respect that you can drive almost anywhere in the state in less than 5 hours. The Guilford has an estimated population of 393,496 area consists of 12 cities; they are Burlington, Gibsonville, Greensboro, High Point, Archdale, Kernersville, Oak Ridge, Stokesdale, Summerfield, Whitsett, Sedalia, and Pleasant Garden. Its two major cities are Greensboro which has a population of 224,000 (3rd in N.C.) and High Point, which has a population of 86,000 (8th in N.C.).

Guilford County is widely urbanized, modernized, and entertainment oriented. Throughout the county there are 3 major shopping malls and 5 acute teaching and emergency hospitals. Guilford plays host to a lot of big cultural and recreational events. These include such events as the N.C. Shakespeare festival, the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic professional golf tournament, and the annual collegiate men's Basketball tournament for the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southern Conference. Most of these events are held in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex that includes a coliseum that holds 23,500, an auditorium that can occupy 2,326, a Special events Center that holds 167,000, and a parking lot that can be filled with 5,200 cars. For 41 years this Complex has seen a wide variety of classic memorable events spanning from Michael Jordan's highest college scoring performance to Elvis and Back Street Boy concerts.

Guilford County has a large economic base in the state and is the home of many big businesses and corporations such as Jefferson Pilot, Burlington Industries, Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation, Lorillard Corporation, Cone Mills, Guilford Mills and VF Corporation. High Point is said to be the furniture capital of the world as it attracts 140,000 visitors a year, and generates more than 242 million dollars in economic benefits per year. I can definitely vouch for that because my parents move out of their house two weeks out of the year to rent to 10 Canadians who travel down to work the market and compare furniture prices.

As far as the government is concerned Guilford county is ran by the Board of County Commissioners as the chief administrative and policy making body. The board includes 11 members, nine of which are elected from districts, and two whom are elected at large. The commissioners oversee an annual Budget of 414 million dollars, which is taken from a tax base of 28.75 billion. The major areas of government influence in Guilford country are education, human services, public safety, administration support, and community development. Guilford is well known and acknowledged as a leader in government services and innovation. It was one of the first two counties to employ a welfare superintendent, and the first in the nation to offer a full-time county health service! Guilford is also a leading partner in the department of air pollution guidelines, and was one of the first to start a mobile intensive care ambulance service.

Guilford County contains 94 schools that are attended by over 60,000 children. The Board of County Commissioners raises the money for the public school systems by taking more than fifty percent of the property tax collected each years and putting it in the maintenance and construction of these educational facilities. These schools include all varieties of educational opportunities on the primary, elementary, and secondary levels, which include areas such as academic, vocational and technical. Also throughout the county, school counseling programs use support services to meet the needs of disabled and exceptional children. Guilford country is home to many universities, colleges, junior colleges, and technical institutions. Just to name a few these include High Point University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, John Wesley College, and Guilford Technical Community College.

Guilford County includes a wide range of Labor and Job opportunities. Currently in the labor force there are 213,000 people and out of those there are 208,000 that are employed and about 5,000 that are not. This is not that bad but it needs to improve, the overall unemployment rate is 2.3%. The employment base goes like this, Agriculture .6%, Construction 5%, Manufacturing 20.5%, Transportation/Utilities/Communication 6.4%, Wholesale Trade 7.3%, Retail Trade 18.3%, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate 5.9%, Services 25.3%, and Government is 10.4%.

Guilford is a highly traveled through spot in N.C. There are 8 major highways that run through the county that could lead you anywhere from New York to Florida, or NC to Arkansas. Guilford also has the Piedmont International Airport, which services extend, all over the continent. This year Fed Ex will start building their 5th National hub, which will be added on to the airport and estimated to be fully operational in 2005. The hub will cost an estimated 300 million dollars, and will be capable of sorting 24,000 packages per hour. This project will bring anywhere from 700 to 1500 new jobs to the county.

Guilford counties 393,496 inhabitants can be broken down into many statistics such as race, age, marital status etc. here are a few facts that I have researched. Guilford County is 47.3% male and 52.7% female. 55.7% of Guilford's couples are married and 28.7% are not married. The divorced population is at 8.2%, and the Widowed at 7.4%. The white population in Guilford County is at 72.9%, blacks are 26.4%, Asian is 1.1%, American Indian is .5%, Hispanics are 0.8%, and all the others stand at .1%. The Average house hold size in Guilford is 2.48, with 10.5% of the population living in 1 person house holds, 12.1% living in a female-headed home, and 32.6% living with children under 18. Age's range like this, less than 5 yr. Old is 7.5%, 5-17 yrs. old is 16.8%, 18-24 yrs. old is 11.09%, 25-34 yrs. old is 16.6%, 35-44 yrs. old is 16.7, 45-54 yrs. old is 13.2, 55-64 yrs. old is 9.4, and 65 plus is 13.6 of the population with the average age being 37.2.

Sources

High Point, USA. http://www.high-point.net/dept/edc/labor.html.

"Demographics." Greensboro, North Carolina, Economic Development Partnership. http://www.forwardgreensboro.com/.

About Guilford County. http://www.co.guilford.nc.us/about/index.html.

"Airport Area Plan Update." Guilford County, North Carolina. http://www.co.guilford.nc.us/government/planning1/devord/airhome.html.

Created November 19, 2001
Updated May 20, 2003