Rocky Mount is a city in Edgecombe and Nash counties in the Atlantic coastal plain region of the U.S. state of North Carolina.

Although it was not formally incorporated until February 28, 1907, the North Carolina community that became the city of Rocky Mount dates from the beginning of the 19th century. The first post office in the area opened in 1816. The city's population was 57,685 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population of 56,325 in 2014. Rocky Mount has received the All-America City Award from the National Civic League two times, in 1969 and 1999. Rocky Mount is the principal city of the Rocky Mount metropolitan area, which includes Edgecombe and Nash counties.

Rocky Mount is also a part of a Combined Statistical Area which encompasses the Rocky Mount and Wilson metropolitan areas. The Rocky Mount–Wilson CSA population is currently over 200,000 residents. It is also a part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary CSA with a total population of 2,132,523.

Public transit

Tar River Transit provides public transportation in and around the city of Rocky Mount, and operates 10 fixed bus routes throughout the city.

Health care



Nash UNC Health Care is a nonprofit hospital affiliated with UNC Health Care, which it joined in 2014. It has 345 beds at four different locations. Its flagship facility is Nash General Hospital. When Nash General opened in 1971, it consolidated four different hospitals in the Rocky Mount area, and was the first all-private-room hospital in North Carolina. Other facilities operated are Nash Day Hospital, opened in 1984 as a free-standing outpatient surgery center; the Bryant T. Aldridge Rehabilitation Center, opened in 1999; and the Coastal Plain Hospital, a mental health facility. Nash General Hospital has added multiple new subunits in more recent years: a Surgery Pavilion in 2004, a renovated Emergency Department and Nash Heart Center in 2014, and Nash Women's Center in 2016. In 2018, the Danny Talbott Cancer Center facility opened, named in honor of a Rocky Mount athletic legend and cancer survivor.