Shelby, North Carolina

Shelby population, 2020 to 2024

Shelby added 825 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +3.8%. In the latest year it moved by +719. Among 147 North Carolina places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 86th; the median place changed by +4.7%. The median place of 5,000+ in North Carolina has 14,573 people, so Shelby is 1.6 times that size.

Shelby covers 22.36 square miles of land and 0.03 of water, for 1,019 people per square mile of land. The median North Carolina place of 5,000+ has 1,316, so Shelby is less dense than the typical town.

What county Shelby is in

All of Shelby's residents live in Cleveland County, which had 102,194 residents in 2024. Shelby holds 22.3% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Shelby

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Shelby by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 28150, 28152. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a city that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Shelby is

The Census internal point of Shelby is at 35.290400, -81.545600. Raleigh, the capital, is 166.9 miles ENE in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Gastonia, NC (85,535 people), 20.4 miles away. The nearest city of 100,000 or more is Charlotte, NC, 40.7 miles away.

Daylight in Shelby

At 35.29° N, Shelby gets about 14 h 32 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 47 min around the December solstice, a swing of 4 h 46 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026.

Places near Shelby

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in North Carolina, measured between internal points. The closest is Boiling Springs, 7.2 miles away, with 4,759 people.