North Carolina has for years been a top growth market, and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC & Raleigh, NC, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). are often powering a big chunk of the construction activity and population growth. The state was also recently recognized as 2025’s #1 State for Business by CNBC.
The Charlotte metro has several big data center projects in the proposal stage, including a $10-billion Amazon data center and AI campus in Hamlet, NC. A large industrial project of note is the $380-million PPG factory under consideration in Shelby, NC. Charlotte has also seen massive population growth over the past four years, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The metro’s population increased by 215,006 residents from 2020-2024.
SALES ESTIMATES
2025 Total Electrical Sales Estimate: $1413.5 million
Electrical Contractor $ Potential Estimate: $846.6 million
Industrial $ Sales Potential Estimate: $284.3 million
BUILDING PERMITS
Single-Family (SF) Permits: 10,879 permits
SF YOY # Change: -796 permits
SF YOY % Change: -6.8%
Multi-Family (MF) Permits: 3,882 permits
MF YOY # Change: -151 permits
MF YOY % Change: -3.7%
POPULATION GROWTH
Population Estimate 2024: 2,883,370
# Change 2023-2024: 61,176
# Change 2020-2024: 215,006
New Residents per Day: 141.2
Electrical Wholesaling's Top 10 Local Markets to Watch gives you a taste of the mountain of electrical market sales estimates and other local market data available at Electrical Marketing newsletter for just $99 per year. This data includes:
- Local market sales estimates, building permits and population data for more than 300 other Metropolitan Statistical areas
- The Electrical Price Index (EPI) - A monthly compilation of pricing trends for more than 20 key electrical product groups
- Annual product sales estimates from 16 key electrical products
Sources of market data: Local market data collected by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and county. Sales estimates developed with sales-per-employee multipliers from Electrical Wholesaling’s Market Planning Guide ($78,775 per electrical contractor employee and $2,650 per industrial employee) and employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Building permit and population data downloaded from U.S. Census Bureau website.
About the Author
Jim Lucy
Editor-in-Chief
Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing newsletter on topics such as the impact of amazonsupply.com and other new competitors on the electrical market’s channels of distribution, energy-efficient lighting and renewables, and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.
He recently launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas, and in 1999 he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.
While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in Communications and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University).