Greenville is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. It is the principal city of the Greenville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the 12th-most populous city in North Carolina. Greenville is the health, entertainment, and educational hub of North Carolina's Tidewater and Coastal Plain. As of the 2020 census, there were 87,521 people in the city. The city has continued to see a population increase with a majority of the influx being seen during the 20th and early 21st centuries. Many major companies have moved their regional, national, and international headquarters to Greenville. Companies include Grady-White Boats, Hyster-Yale Group, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Denso, among others. Minges Bottling Group, a large Pepsi bottling and distribution facility, is also located just outside Greenville in Ayden.
Greenville is the home of East Carolina University, the fourth-largest university in the University of North Carolina system, and ECU Health Medical Center, the flagship hospital for ECU Health and the teaching hospital for the Brody School of Medicine.
Greenville formed in 1771 as "Martinsborough," named after the Royal Governor Josiah Martin. In 1774 the town was moved to its present location on the south bank of the Tar River, west of its original site. In 1786, the name was changed to Greenesville in honor of General Nathanael Greene, the American Revolutionary War hero. It was later shortened to Greenville.
During Greenville's early years, the Tar River was a navigable waterway, and by the 1860s there were several established steamboat lines transporting passengers and goods on the river. Cotton was the leading agricultural crop, and Greenville became a major cotton export center. Before the turn of the century, however, tobacco surpassed cotton and became the leading money crop. Greenville became one of the state's leading tobacco marketing and warehouse centers.