A city in eastern North Carolina is getting its moment in the spotlight as an emerging technology hub.
Greenville ranks as the No. 73 best hub for tech in the country, according to a new report from the NC Tech Association, which notes that the city's ranking was impressive considering how relatively small the metro area is.
"Interestingly, several of the smaller metros in the state that fall outside of the top 105 metros in terms of population performed well," the report says. "Considering that Greenville's 2021 adult population ranked the metro 258th out of all MSAs in the nation, it is quite impressive that the metro ranked as the 73rd best metro for tech."
Greenville is home to 88,700 people and Pitt County as a whole is home to 172,100 people, according to U.S. Census data.
Other notable North Carolina MSAs include Durham-Chapel Hill ranking No. 6, Raleigh-Cary at No. 8, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia at No. 28 and Wilmington at No. 54.
The NC Tech Association report examined different metro areas based on several different criteria. The category that Greenville especially stood out in was the amount of people who completed their education with a focus on STEM.
Greenville not only ranked No. 1 in North Carolina, but the entire country in the amount of STEM education completions per capita. That's in large part due to East Carolina University in Greenville. Ted Abernathy, managing partner of test Economic Leadership LLC, said during a webinar presenting the report that Greenville's high ranking in this category bodes well for the future of the city's tech industry.
"There's been a real effort down east to get STEM completers and they have scored higher on this," Abernathy said. "I think this is interesting and lays the foundation for growth in eastern North Carolina in the Greenville area."
Greenville is starting to attract more investments from real estate developers and companies looking to capitalize on the talent pool produced by East Carolina University. One example of that is Grover Gaming, a software development and design company founded in Greenville that makes video games played in casinos and other venues. The company is expanding and is building a new headquarters campus as part of a 200-person job expansion.
