Outer Banks, North Carolina
The Outer Banks is made up of only two counties: Dare County and Currituck County. "The latest population estimates from the Census Bureau showed that Currituck had an estimated 23,502 residents in July 2009. This made Currituck only the 77th largest county in the state (out of 100), but since July 2000 Currituck had grown faster (2.9 percent annual average) than all the counties in the state, except eight. Dare, at 34,253 permanent residents in July 2009, was the state’s 68th most populous county and had grown by 1.1 percent since July 2000. Over this seven-year period Dare was the 30th fastest growing county in the North Carolina. Obviously, the 57,755 permanent residents of the Outer Banks comprise only a small portion of the 9.5 million North Carolinians," (Commerce, 2011).
The Outer Banks is structured to support a tourist community, so the coastal economy differs from the traditional economy (North Carolina state-wide). The graph below shows the distribution of jobs (created by Michelle Faber).
